


A Children’s Tragedy

by ambersweet



Series: young just us [2]
Category: Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M, it’s about Character Growth, it’s about Found Family, it’s about Self Discovery, it’s about teenagers’ inability to take things seriously, it’s about the Tenderness of Friendship, it’s about tim and cassie loving each other boundlessly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:14:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 21,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21964144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambersweet/pseuds/ambersweet
Summary: Tim returns to the team, but knock knock, who is it? It’s his past come back to haunt him!—read the first part pls
Relationships: Bart Allen/Jaime Reyes, Kon-El | Conner Kent/Cassie Sandsmark, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Series: young just us [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1581172
Comments: 25
Kudos: 61





	1. home is _______

**Author's Note:**

> it only took me 18 days to finish this one ayyyyyyyyyyy a prequel AND another installment (threequel?) will be up as soon as i finish them as well!!! i love you guys, and i also love Tim Drake

It takes a lot of restraint for Cassie to not punch Tim in the face. 

It has been nearly six months, which doesn’t seem like a lot, but it goes by very slowly when you’re counting the days. 

It’s been six months since Tim left, since he  _ abandoned _ the team, and he can’t possibly think that she would let him waltz right back in. 

“What are you doing here?” she asks instead. 

“Cassie,” Tim says. His voice is deeper and his jawline is sharper and he actually seems a little taller which is odd because he certainly has not been gone for  _ that _ long. 

“What the hell are you doing here, Tim?” Cassie says. 

“I needed to see you,” Tim says. His voice is wobbly and sincere. “I needed to come home.”

Cassie pulls him into a tight hug and he immediately wraps his arms around her. She inhales as much of his scent as she can because he smells like coffee and sawdust and home. When it starts getting hard to breathe, she realizes that she started to cry and knows that those familiar teary blotches are going to appear on his shirt. Suddenly, she’s not angry at him at all. She just wants to hold onto him and never let him go.

“I’m sorry, Cass,” he whispers into her hair. “I’m so sorry.”

Cassie pulls away and wipes at her face before leading him into the apartment. “You’re looking for Conner, aren’t you?”

“No, actually, I was looking for you,” Tim says. He takes a seat at the kitchen table. “I knew you would be here and I knew Conner was going to be out.”

“Where have you been, Tim?” Cassie asks, sitting down across from Tim. “Why did you come back?”

Tim looks at his hands for a bit. He knows that her amiable mood isn’t going to last forever and she’ll eventually drag this all into a fight sometime later on but he’s not going to push it. “You know that there are other Earths, right?”

“Yeah, fifty-two. Bart’s told me about them,” Cassie says. They look at each other for a bit before her eyes widen and she slams her hands on the table. “Oh my god, you were on another Earth?”

“I received a message from the Oracle of Earth-23,” Tim tells her. “Their Justice League went evil and took over the world and they were living in a dystopian dictatorship.”

Cassie stares at him. “Holy shit. Did the Reach -”

“No, the Reach had nothing to do with it,” Tim says, and Cassie lets out a relieved breath. “Batman just went crazy. Oracle asked for me to help her take the Justice League down.”

Cassie crosses her arms and leans back in her chair. “Okay. Alright. And you did that? You helped them? And now you’re back and we’re done with that whole adventure?”

“Yes,” Tim says slowly. 

“Yeah, that didn’t sound promising at all but I’m just gonna put a pin in it for now. Are you hungry?” Cassie says. She gets up and starts moving around the kitchen, pulling things out of the pantry and plugging in the microwave. When she turns back, Tim is still just sitting there, staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face. “What?”

Tim shakes his head and smiles a little. “I missed you so much, Cass.”

Cassie almost feels like crying again and smiles back at him. “I missed you too.”

She ends up making tea since they’re the only two one the team who ever actually liked tea and shows Tim a teapot that she’s gotten while he was gone. He compliments it because he genuinely thinks that it’s cute. 

“You know, you really fucked everything over when you left,” Cassie says, stirring sugar into her tea. “We were off balance for weeks. It was like, I always knew that you and Conner were best buds and Bart’s, like, my kid, and we’re a team and all, but I never considered  _ us _ to be particularly close, and then all of a sudden, you were gone and there was this huge gaping hole in my life.”

“We are  _ all  _ best friends,” Tim tells her earnestly. “Core four, alright? The four of us forever, the four of us or nothing. Just us.” 

Cassie tears up again but she blinks rapidly so that none of the tears can fall. 

“Have you gone to see Batman yet?” she asks. “He’s been beating himself up about losing you this whole time. You know he loves you just as much as Damian and Nightwing.” 

“Yeah, I know,” Tim sighs. “I’m too traumatized by his evil doppelgänger to see him just yet. I’ve only been back for, like, an hour. But, hey, speaking of which, how’s Damian doing?” 

Cassie smiles. “He’s great, man. Jaime got him hooked on Zorro and it’s the cutest thing in the world. He won’t admit it but I think he likes being Robin.” 

“Good for him,” Tim says. 

_ “Good for him,” _ Cassie parrots, raising her eyebrows. “I thought you hated him.” 

“It’s been a long time,” Tim says. “I missed everyone. Some more than others, obviously, but still. I was on a different Earth.” 

“That’s so cool,” Cassie says. She rests her chin on her fist. “I mean, it’s not cool that you had to save it from the evil Justice League, it’s just super cool that you were able to actually go to another Earth.” 

“Maybe I’ll take you someday,” Tim says. 

Cassie’s entire face lights up. “Are you serious? You would take me to another Earth?” 

Tim shrugs. “Yeah, why not? You could help out a little.” 

“You really saved their world, huh?” Cassie asks. 

“I did my best,” Tim says. “Most revolutions take a while. You have no idea how long I was gone.” 

“Six months,” Cassie says immediately. “You were gone for six months.” 

“No, I wasn’t,” Tim says. Cassie narrows her eyes at him because she has no idea how he can spin that argument. She literally has a countdown on her phone of how many days he’s been gone and it’s pretty close to six months. “The closer you are to a strong gravitational pull, the slower time passes. Do you understand?”

Cassie blinks slowly and takes a sip of her tea. “I might, keep going.” 

“The other Earth that I was on, Earth-23, is further away from a black hole than we are,” Tim says and Cassie keeps staring at him blankly so he grabs a napkin from the middle of the table and a pen. “This is the black hole that we’re closest to. V616 Mon.” He draws a big, dark blob near the end of the napkin. “This is where we are in relation to it, three thousand light years away.” He draws a haphazard circle about halfway across the napkin and puts a heart in it. “Earth-23 is here, at six thousand light years away.” He draws another circle at the other edge of the napkin. “Because we’re closer to the black hole, the gravitational pull is stronger and time moves slower here. Time moves like this for us.” He slowly draws revolutions around the heart circle. “This is how time moves on Earth-23.” The revolutions he draws around the other circle are significantly quicker. “Time is relative to gravity.”

It takes a while for her to get it but, eventually, things click into place, and she leans forward. “How long, Tim?”

“Two years,” he says. 

“I knew you looked taller,” Cassie blurts with a smile on her face. “Your voice is deeper, too. You lost some baby fat.”

Tim laughs. “I tell you that I’ve been gone for two years and all you have to say is that I got taller.”

“Well, yeah,” Cassie says. “Last time I saw you, you were, like, five six? How tall are you now?”

“Five ten,” Tim says flatly, but it’s obvious that he’s proud of it. 

Cassie gasps. “You’re as tall as Conner!” 

As if on cue, the door opens and they can hear keys falling into the bowl on the table by the door and Conner walks in, dropping his coat on the couch. He looks like he’s going to say something but stops when he sees Tim and he just stands there for a good minute. 

Tim stands up. “Hey, man -”

Conner’s fist collides with his jaw and he stumbles backwards a couple steps. Cassie’s eyes widen and she takes a sip of her tea, excited to watch this exchange. She’s glad that someone gets to punch Tim. 

“I deserved that,” Tim says, holding a hand to his face. 

“Yeah. You did,” Conner agrees. “What the hell, dude? You can’t just leave like that. I get it, alright, if you need space, but at least let us know that you’re alive.”

Tim nods. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Good, because if you ever do that again and you’re not already dead, I’m going to kill you,” Conner says. He glares at Tim for a while longer before pulling him into a tight hug. “I love you, man.”

“Love you too, buddy,” Tim says, patting Conner’s back. 

“Why don’t you tell him where you’ve been?” Cassie suggests. “He’s gonna love it.”

Conner pulls back and frowns at Tim. “What’s she talking about? Were you in Hawaii? You promised that we would go to Hawaii together.”

“I didn’t go to Hawaii,” Tim says. “I was on Earth-23.”

“What?” Conner looks at Cassie. “What?”

“Wait, okay, how come I got a whole crazy introduction and then a lecture on time gravity relativity and all he gets is ‘Earth-23,’?” Cassie says. 

“Because you understand build up and can appreciate drama,” Tim says. “Conner is simple. He’ll get a simple explanation.”

“I am not simple,” Conner protests. 

“Of course you’re not,” Tim says, patting his arm. He looks at Cassie. “Don’t tell him about the time gravity relativity, he’ll get confused and then he’ll get upset and might cry.”

“Got it.” Cassie winks at Tim and then gets up. “You want some tea, Kon?”

“No, thanks,” Conner says. He sits down at the table with Tim. “So, what were you doing on Earth-23?”

“I had to help the Oracle overthrow the Justice League, which was an evil dictatorship that took over the planet,” Tim says. “Just, you know. Regular stuff.”

“Really?” Conner looks impressed. “Were we evil?”

“Yeah, um, Bart wasn’t there and I’m not sure where Jaime was,” Tim says. “But the three of us were crazy evil psychos. It was terrifying.”

Cassie returns to her seat beside Conner’s and hands him a glass of water. “If you came up with a contingency plan for the Justice League and they find out about it, you’re gonna get bageled.”

“It wasn’t a contingency plan, it was a battle plan critical to the revolution,” Tim says. “And it wasn’t for  _ our _ Justice League, it was for the evil guys.” 

“Did you kill them?” Conner asks. 

Tim shakes his head. “Not all of them, just the important guys. The rest are locked up. Barbara is good, though. She’s got it covered, and if they need me, they’ll just call.”

“So, was the Oracle just as hot over there as she is here?” Conner asks, grinning. Cassie smacks his arm. “What, I’m just asking!” 

“Well, you know, she’s Barbara,” Tim says. He shrugs and looks down at his tea. “I could never see her like that, she’s like my older sister.”

“A hot older sister,” Conner goads. 

“Conner,” Cassie snaps. 

Conner laughs and tosses an arm over her shoulders. “Calm down, you know you’re the only girl for me.”

Tim looks between the two of them in mild disgust but mostly amusement. It’s been too long since he’s had to witness their weird flirting and he’s surprised to admit that he’s kind of missed it. 

“Are you going to go back to the manor?” Cassie asks Tim. 

Tim sighs and shakes his head. “Nah, um, I think I’m gonna head over to the cave first.”

“You can stay here, if you want,” Conner offers. 

“As much as I’d love to, I really should make sure my family knows I’m home,” Tim says. He leans over to kiss Cassie on the cheek and hugs Conner. “I can’t tell you how good it was to see you guys again. I’ll see myself out.”

“Good luck,” Conner calls after him. 

“Thanks, man,” Tim says, opening the door. “I’ll need it.”

Bart charges full speed at Tim as soon as he sees him and they both go crashing to the ground. 

“Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re back, I missed you so much!” Bart exclaims, grabbing Tim’s face in his hands and peppering him with kisses between words. “Where have you been, why did you leave, wow, your chest is super firm, I love you, I thought you were dead, oh my god!” 

Tim can barely laugh because he’s being crushed. “I missed you too, man.” 

“Babe, you can’t just jump on people,” Jaime says, but his eyes widen when he sees that it’s Tim. “Oh, shit. Oh my god, dude, hey.” 

“Hello,” Tim says weakly, lifting a hand. “Can you - Bart, bud, I love you, but like - can you take him back?”

Jaime has the audacity to  _ laugh _ and he effortlessly lifts Bart off of Tim. Bart whines but settles for tucking himself into Jaime’s side. 

“What are you guys doing here?” Tim asks. “Cassie didn’t say anything about team stuff happening right now.” 

“My sister has a bunch of friends over for a school project, so we’re hanging out here,” Jaime answers. 

“You went to see Cassie before me?” Bart says, appalled. “Does twink solidarity mean nothing to you? Do I mean nothing to you?”

Tim frowns. “Okay, well, first of all, I am not a twink, and you are not a twink, so don’t ever say that again, and second, Kon and Cassie are the leaders of the Drake Ass Fan Club, which you aren’t even a part of, so I kind of owe it to them.”

“Speaking of Drake Ass, yours seems to have gotten tighter,” Bart remarks. “So, you know. I’m going to need those answers as well. But  _ first, _ let’s go to the kitchen because I got an ice cream cake yesterday.”

“Great,” Tim says, following Bart and Jaime. “Is Red Tornado still around?”

“He’s been staring at his reflection in the oven losing his sense of self for the past few hours,” Jaime says. “Not sure if we’re supposed to do anything about that.” 

“He’ll be fine by tomorrow,” Bart says, waving his hand dismissively. 

They get to the kitchen and Red Tornado is, as promised, looking at himself in a mirror. Tim takes a seat at the table and watches Bart and Jaime move around the kitchen in a comfortable way that’s pretty endearing. 

Then, they hear the sound of someone running very noisily and Tim turns to see Damian standing, red faced, in the doorway. 

“Oh, hello,” Tim says. 

“Hello,” Damian says. “You - how are - how -”

“Take your time,” Tim says. 

Damian furrows his brow. “I’m going to get Grayson.” 

“Wonderful,” Tim mumbles. 

Damian disappears again and Tim puts his head in his hands. 

“Hi, please explain everything,” Bart says loudly, joining Tim at the table. 

“Yeah, um.” Tim looks up at him. “I’ve actually really been wanting to talk to you about this.”

It takes fifteen minutes for Tim to get through the gist of it, with Bart interrupting with questions every five seconds. He doesn’t seem surprised in the slightest, like Tim is telling him about how he went to Florida for spring break. Bart has always been very smart, Tim knows that, so he knew that he would love to talk about time travel and alternate dimensions.

“You selfish, stupid, obtuse piece of shit,” Dick says loudly as he strides into the room. Tim just looks at him. “We all thought you died, do you know how much it sucks to have two Robins in a row die?” 

“Why does everyone assume that I died? Do you guys really think it would have been that easy to kill me?” Tim asks. 

“Yes,” Damian says from where he’s standing in the doorway. “You are very soft.” 

Dick sort of blinks really quickly at Tim, and Tim sighs, turning around in his chair and opening his arms. Dick immediately engulfs him in a hug that’s oddly reminiscent of his mother. He can feel Dick’s shoulders trembling and that familiar sting of guilt hits him again, hard. 

“I’m sorry,” Dick whispers. “I didn’t mean to push you out. I’m sorry.” 

“Oh, no, Jesus, Dick, no,” Tim says. “It wasn’t you.” 

“Yeah, sorry, that’s my bad,” Damian says tonelessly. 

“Damian, literally, can you shut up for two minutes and let me have this?” Dick hisses. 

“My Switch is in my backpack on the couch,” Jaime offers. 

Dick doesn’t let go of Tim for a while and Tim takes the time to explain everything. He’s not sure how much information Dick retains, since he doesn’t respond at all over squeezing him tighter at some points. 

“Tell me about the other Earth,” Bart demands, once Dick releases Tim. “Was the environment the same as ours? What caused Batman to turn evil? Do you think it could happen here?” 

“Yeah, um.” Tim accepts a plate of ice cream cake from Jaime. “Same environment. Didn’t chat with the old guy long enough to figure it out. Not sure about it happening here.” 

Bart chews on his lip and frowns. “But what about -”

“Have you seen Bruce yet?” Dick cuts him off. 

Jaime rests his arm on the back of Bart’s chair to calm him down, smiling at him in the sweetest, purest way. Trust Bart and Jaime to make Tim believe in love again. 

“Uh,” Tim says, shrugging. “No. No, not yet. Bart, I haven’t seen you for so long, how have you been?” 

Bart very tenderly reaches across the table and puts his hand over Tim’s. “I got laid.” 

“Oh, gross!” Damian exclaims at the same time Jaime’s face burns bright red and he says, “Bart, shut up.”

“Congrats, bro,” Tim says anyways, grinning. He missed this chaos. “Proud of you.” 


	2. if you close your eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, watching interstellar once: TIME IS RELATIVE TO GRAVITY ??
> 
> warning: a character talks about torture that he’s experienced? idk if that needs to be Warned of, but i’m gonna leave that there, just in case anyone is uncomfy with it

Coming home to Wayne Manor this time is a lot different than when he would sneak into his bedroom after staying out later than he was allowed to. Bruce yells at him and Alfred gives him some stern words that, for some reason, feel even worse than the yelling. He stays at the cave for the first couple weeks, and Bart and Conner decide to stay with him, since neither of them really have homes either. Cassie hangs out for as long as she can before her mother calls her home. 

“Hey, sleepyhead. Do you want McDonald’s for breakfast?” 

Tim leaps out from under his covers, wraps his thighs around Conner’s neck, and whacks him on the head, sending both of them to the ground. 

“Do you not like McDonald’s anymore?” Conner wheezes, pushing Tim off of him. 

“Jesus, Kon, you can’t just walk in like that!” Tim snaps, scrambling away like a crab. He scowls at Conner. “At least knock first!” 

Conner frowns and rubs his neck. “We never knock.” 

“Yeah, well, now we do,” Tim says. He sighs and runs a hand over his face. “You forget that I was just on another Earth where you were evil and we were enemies.” 

“I’m sorry,” Conner says. 

Tim shakes his head. “You gotta be more careful, man.” 

“What exactly did you do over there?” Conner asks quietly. “Like, I know you saved them from dictatorship or whatever, but what did you do?” 

“I helped Barbara organize attacks on the evil Justice League so they could gain enough control to overthrow them,” Tim says. 

“Did you ever meet me?” Conner asks. “Earth-23 me?” 

“I did,” Tim tells him. 

“What was I like?” 

“He was so much like you it was scary,” Tim says flatly. “I mean, it made sense, because he was you, but he wasn’t you, but - anyways. The way he talked, the things he said, the way he looked at me, it was just  _ so you. _ There were some times that I could have sworn it was really you, Kon. But then he would go and do some dumb shit and I was reminded of what I was there for. Dude, I had to kill him. It was extremely difficult.” 

Conner stares at him. “You killed me?” 

“I didn’t kill  _ you,” _ Tim says. “I killed something else.” 

“Jesus, man,” Conner breathes out. “That’s so rough. Did you get hurt over there?” 

Tim looks over at Conner, slightly amused. “I get hurt everywhere.” 

Conner raises his eyebrows.

Tim contemplates it for a bit before tugging his shirt off. He’s too skinny and too pale and he knows that. He tries not to flinch when Conner lightly presses his fingers over the pink skin stretched too tightly over the left side of his rib cage, a silent question. 

“Acid,” he says, keeping it short. He lets Conner run his hand down to dips in his abdomen, the red marks blooming across his stomach. “Electrocution.” 

Conner frowns. He’s touching Tim like he’s made of glass, like he could break if he pushes just a little too hard. “How?” 

“They had me for a couple weeks,” Tim says, shrugging. “They didn’t break me, though.” 

“I’m sorry,” Conner says when he pulls his hand back. “I’m so sorry.” 

“It’s not your fault.” Tim pulls his shirt back on. “I can handle a few scars.” 

“You shouldn’t have to.” 

Tim leans back on his bed. “It’s fine. It happened. We keep going. There’s no reason to feel bad about it.”

“I wish I could have protected you,” Conner says. 

“Nah, man, don’t do that,” Tim says. “There wasn’t anything you could have done. And it wasn’t - I didn’t need protection. ” 

“I know you don’t need it, but I want to protect you anyways,” Conner tells him. “You’re my best friend, I don’t want you to get hurt.” 

“Dude, stop worrying about it,” Tim says. He doesn’t know how to deal with Soft Conner TM . “I’m back. I’m good.” 

Conner doesn’t look convinced but he backs down. “Alright.” 

_ “Please _ don’t try to psychoanalyze me,” Tim requests. Conner snorts. “I know you’ve been spending a lot of time with Cassie. She does that.” 

“I’m too dumb to psychoanalyze anyone,” Conner states. “I don’t even know what she’s talking about half the time.” 

“So, what’s, uh, going on with you two?” Tim asks idly. He’s been dying to know. They’re way touchier and flirty now than they were before he left and Bart had hinted at them being a couple more than once. “You guys together?” 

Conner clears his throat. “Couldn’t slip that past you, huh?” 

“I’m the world’s greatest detective. You can’t slip anything past me,” Tim says. “Spill. What happened?” 

“It’s on the down low,” Conner says. “Her mom doesn’t want her to date and Wonder Woman beat me up when she saw us kissing so pretty much only Bart and Jaime know about it.” 

Tim honestly has no idea how to feel about it. Cassie and Conner are his best friends, his only friends, quite frankly. He loves both of them so much but he just doesn’t really know what to think. It’s a bit weird but not unexpected. He can’t bring himself to be happy for them, though. It’s odd and he’s not sure what it means. 

“I won’t tell anyone,” he says after a way too long moment of silence. 

“Thanks, man,” Conner says. “I appreciate it.” 

“So, um.” Tim has had straight friends before but he never really considered Conner or Cassie straight until now and he doesn’t know what to say. “How far have you guys gotten?” 

Conner rolls his eyes and pushes Tim’s shoulder. “Nope, not doing that.” 

“I was just asking!” Tim says, forcing a grin on his face. “Are you guys using protection?” 

“Oh my god,  _ stop.” _

“It’s a serious question! Teenage pregnancy is not a joke!”

“Why do you think we were called here?” Bart asks, rocking back and forth on his feet. They’re all gathered in the cave, with Cassie being the only one bothering to sprawl out on the couch. “Do you think they’re gonna disband us? Five bucks says it’s a super secret important mission.” 

“Honestly, it’s probably just Dick throwing a surprise welcome home party for Tim,” Conner says. He’s leaning against the kitchen counter, a slice of pizza in his hand. “He’s been asking me about it for days.” 

“No, that’s not for a few weeks,” Cassie says, not looking up from her phone. “He’s waiting until the whole league is available, I’ve had an order for cake at 85C for five days.”

Tim drags Damian into the room as the tube announces their arrival, clearly exhausted. “Sorry I’m late, Damian didn’t want to come.” 

“ _ Ya, chamaco,  _ you’re breaking my heart,” Jaime says dramatically, putting a hand over his chest. “I thought you loved seeing me.” 

Damian’s face burns red and he scowls. “Whatever.” 

“Is Bruce here yet? Do we know what’s going on?” Tim asks, moving to stand beside Conner. 

“Nah.” Bart shakes his head. “He’s always fashionably late, you know that.” 

Tim snorts. “I sure do.” 

“You got a haircut,” Conner remarks, running a hand over Tim’s hair. 

“Uh, yeah. It felt like it was needed,” Tim says, leaning away. 

“You look hot,” Bart pipes up. “Ten out of ten, would bang if I was a top.” 

“I’m literally  _ begging _ you to shut up,” Cassie says. 

“Yeah? Why don’t you do something about it?” Bart challenges. 

Cassie looks at Jaime. “You better collect your boy before I hurt his feelings.”

“Hey, go for it,” Jaime says. 

The tube announces the arrival of Batman and the kids all straighten up to greet him. 

“I have an assignment for you,” Batman says sharply, leading them to the display screen in the team room. He turns it on so they can see a picture of a smudgy, pale girl with a chart of her stats and a small treatise of the mission. 

Bart nudges Jaime with his elbow. “I called it.” 

“Yeah,” Jaime replies, tossing an arm over Bart’s shoulders. “Remind me to give you five bucks later.” 

“You could give me something else.” Bart wraps his arms around Jaime’s waist and grins up at him. 

“You guys are gross,” Damian states loudly. 

“I second that,” Cassie adds. 

“Homophobia is  _ rampant _ in our society,” Bart says. 

“A metahuman called Mist Girl escaped the DEO yesterday,” Batman says, making it obvious that he’s fed up with them. “She’s a valuable asset and I’ve been asked to find her and bring her back.” 

“So what you’re saying is they asked you and you don’t want to do it so you’re dumping it on literally anyone else,” Tim says flatly. Batman looks at him pointedly. “No, hey, it’s whatever, man. I’m not even on this team.” 

Cassie frowns. “Yes, you are. You’ll always be on the team.” 

“I’m not,” Tim says, shrugging. “Robin is a part of the team and I’m not Robin anymore.” 

“You will always be Robin,” Bart says, holding a hand up to tap Tim’s chest, “in here.” 

Tim swats his hand away. 

“Whoever you are, or whoever you choose to be, you’re on this mission,” Batman says. “I want you to lead it.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cassie says suddenly. “What the hell? Why does he get to lead?” 

“He was leader before and now he’s back,” Batman says. “I’d like it if things go back to normal.” 

“We can’t just act like he didn’t disappear on us for six months without notice,” Cassie argues. It takes guts to stand up to Batman so no one else says a thing. “He left us high and dry, and who had to pull the team together when he was gone? Me.  _ I _ lead this team.  _ I _ got us to where we are now and, I’m sorry, but I think I did better than he ever did.” 

“Hey now,” Tim says, holding his hands up. 

“Tim, bud, I love you to bits, but you left. It’s not your team anymore. It’s mine,” Cassie says. “I’m not giving it up.” 

Batman squints at her for a bit. “I’ll let you figure this out amongst yourself, but Tim is to remain on the team for now. Get this done as quickly and quietly as you can.” 

“We’ve literally never done anything quickly or quietly, but we’ll keep that in mind,” Bart says, forcing a smile. “Thanks for stopping by, Bats. We’ll keep you updated. Love you, bye bye.” 

“Alright.” Batman gives them all a sort of concerned look before he leaves. 

Jaime lets out a low whistle. “Y’all make me so stressed. I’m gonna go have some milk.” 

“I love when he says ‘y’all’ it’s like he’s my own Southern gentleman,” Bart gushes to Tim before following his boyfriend to the kitchen. 

“Cass, I don’t want to rock the boat,” Tim says. “You’re right. You’re the leader and it should stay that way.” 

Cassie lets out a relieved sigh. “Thank god, I don’t want to fight with you.” 

“No, please fight,” Damian says. “You would definitely win and also, hopefully, ruin his self esteem.” 

Conner snorts and reaches out to Damian, who high fives him. 

“Okay, what the fuck, you two aren’t allowed to talk to each other anymore,” Tim says, grabbing Damian by the arm and leading him away. He winks at Cassie. “It’s all you,  _ team leader.”  _

Cassie fakes a laugh and turns her attention back to the display screen. Conner comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. 

“Did I come on too strong?” Cassie asks quietly. “Should I have just let him take the mission?”

“Absolutely not,” Conner tells her confidently. “I think you’re a much better leader than he is.”

Cassie presses her lips into a thin line. “What if he’s better now though? He’s been leading a revolution for the past two years. All I’ve done is keep Bart and Jaime from making out in every closet we come across.”

“Maybe he’s better at leading revolutions, but  _ you’re _ better at leading  _ us,” _ Conner tells her. “That’s what counts, right?”

Cassie turns around and puts her hands on Conner’s shoulders, resting her forehead against his chest. “You go get changed, I’ll take care of this with Bart.” 

“Okay.” Conner presses a kiss to the top of her head. “See you in ten.”

“Yeah,” Cassie says, patting his arm. “I’ll see you.”

They part ways and Cassie falls into the desk chair in front of the display screen. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT’S ABOUT MALE TENDERNESS  
> IT’S ABOUT FEMALE ANGUISH


	3. movin right along

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and ur way is my way so trust my navigation

Cassie has Tim hack into the CCTV cameras in all of the cities surrounding the desert that the DEO is located and Bart combs through as many as he can as quickly as he can to compile any sightings of the Mist Girl. The DEO had tried to install a tracker in her, but her physical shape is intangible, so it’s pretty much useless. 

They find footage of her in Tucson, Redrock Canyon, and El Paso, and Cassie splits them up to check out each city in pairs. Conner and Tim go to Tucson, Bart and Cassie go to Redrock Canyon, and Jaime brings Damian to stay in El Paso with him. 

Tim is surprised at how quickly everything gets done. Before he left, it was almost always a mess, with him yelling orders and Conner or Bart deliberately ignoring him. The team is more mature now. They listen when Cassie tells them what to do and they work hard to get it done. Cassie is a better leader than him. It’s obvious. 

He’s not sure why she paired them up how she did. He thought he’d be with Damian, and the two couples would work together, it seemed like the obvious choice. But he sees her poke Damian in the side and whisper something to him with a grin on her face before sending him off to the tubes to get ready. 

He asks Conner about it when they’re getting dinner at a cheap restaurant after settling into the townhome that they’d rented in Tucson. 

“Damian doesn’t listen to anyone except Blue,” Conner tells him. “You didn’t hear it from me but I think he has a crush on him.” 

Tim’s eyes widen and he stares at Conner in disbelief. “Oh my god, no!”

“It’s adorable, his face gets red whenever he calls him ‘chamaco,’” Conner continues. “Cassie bugs him but she’s nice about it. All of us know Blue would never see him as a romantic prospect, especially Damian.”

“Good,” Tim says, crossing his arms. “Damian is way too young.”

Conner laughs a little. “You’re taking this so seriously.” 

“He’s my little brother,” Tim says. 

“You’re related by delusion,” Conner reminds him. 

Tim throws a french fry at Conner, who catches it and pops it in his mouth. 

“Anyways,” Tim says, resting his chin on his fist, “I’m gonna canvas the area and set up metahuman detectors.”

“I guess I’ll help you,” Conner says. 

Tim raises an eyebrow. “You _ guess?”  _

“I mean, yeah, since you asked so nicely,” Conner replies, grinning. 

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to go out of your way,” Tim says. 

“Oh, it’s nothing, I’d do anything to help out a fan,” Conner says. “I am Superboy after all.”

Tim drops his napkin and leans back in his chair. “I will punch you in the face.”

“Go for it, it’s hot when you get aggressive,” Conner says. Tim lets out an exasperated sigh, fully gets up from his seat, and starts walking away. “Hey, wait, you’re the one paying for this, get back here!”

“You should have thought about that before you asked me to partake in platonic BDSM with you!” Tim shoots back, but he hasn’t left the restaurant yet. 

Conner can’t help but laugh. “It wouldn’t be completely platonic.” 

“Cassie would kill me,” Tim states. 

“Cassie likes you a lot more than she likes me, actually,” Conner counters. 

Tim stares at Conner, not entirely sure what he’s supposed to do with that information, and shakes his head. “I don’t even know how you expect me to respond to that.”

“I expect you to come back and finish your grilled cheese,” Conner says, gesturing at the table in front of him. 

Tim sighs and reluctantly returns to his seat. “It’s grilled spinach. I’m lactose intolerant.”

“That’s not spinach, it’s not green,” Conner argues. “Also since when have you been lactose intolerant?”

“Of course it’s green, what the fuck, are you colorblind?  _ Also _ , I’ve been lactose intolerant my whole life,” Tim scoffs, using a knife to poke his sandwich open. “God, people are looking at us now.” 

“And what about it?” Conner says, raising his eyebrows. “I never thought you were someone who cared about what other people think.” 

“You knew Damian for two weeks and I had an identity crisis and ran away to another Earth, of course I care what people think,” Tim says. “I’m probably the most self conscious person on the team.” 

“Jaime’s pretty bashful,” Conner points out. 

Tim rolls his eyes. “Jaime has his own personal fanboy who loves him no matter what he does, he can afford to be bashful.” 

Conner laughs. “What are you saying, you want your own personal fanboy as well?” 

“No!” Tim exclaims. “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt, but it’s definitely not what I need right now, considering I  _ just  _ got back from another Earth where I had to kill my friends and fight against my father figure. There’s a lot going on, man.” 

“You should maybe talk to someone,” Conner suggests. “I hear Harley Quinn is a psychologist.” 

“I’m not talking to Harley Quinn,” Tim says. “She would kill me.” 

“She would try,” Conner says. “You’re insecure, sure, and a little skinny, but you’re not easy to kill.”

Tim manages a smile and shrugs. “You got me there.”

“Look, I’m not Dr. Quinzel nor am I our esteemed Cassie Sandsmark,” Conner says carefully. “But you can talk to me if you want.”

“Not now, Kon,” Tim says. He pats Conner’s hand. “Not while we’re on a mission.”

“We’ll put a pin in it,” Conner says and Tim nods reluctantly. 

They sit in silence, just eating for a little bit. Thinking that it might make Tim laugh, Conner dips his finger in his ketchup and smears it across Tim’s cheek. 

Tim laughs. 

“I just wanna say, it’s super cool that you’re including me in your top secret superhero stuff,” Paco says. “I’ve always wanted to know what it is that you do on your weekends, but I didn’t know if it was okay to ask because I didn’t want to invade your privacy or anything.”

Jaime clears his throat and rests his arm on the window of Paco’s freshly bought 2004 red Kia Spectra. “It’s really you that’s doing us a favor here, man.”

“I don’t see why we can’t do this on our own,” Damian pipes up from the back seat. “We’re known in El Paso, no one will mind if we snoop around.”

“We’re supposed to be incognito so the Mist Girl doesn’t get scared or anything, she’s running from the people we work for,” Jaime says. “And, also, I don’t really think she’s here anyways because this seems like something that would fall into the hands of Tim or Bart.”

“Just because I’m younger than Allen doesn’t mean that I can’t handle missions like he can,” Damian says. 

Jaime sinks in his seat a bit. “I know,  _ chamaco, _ this has nothing to do with you.” 

“Also, who is this kid, and why does he hate Bart?” Paco asks, making a left turn. 

“I’m Robin,” Damian answers for himself. “And I don’t hate Allen.”

Paco looks at Jaime with raised eyebrows and Jaime just sighs and gives him a shrug. 

“Alright,” Paco says. “If you guys are doing this in pairs of two, how come you’re not with Bart?”

“Cassie made the decisions and I respect her,” Jaime replies. “She’s with Bart, they work well together.”

“He knows Cassie  _ and _ Bart?” Damian asks. “How much does he know? Do you tell him everything? This is extremely dangerous.”

“Uh, yeah, Bart went to school with us last year,” Jaime explains to Damian. “And he met Cassie at Bart’s birthday party, which  _ you _ were also invited to.”

“He is a civilian,” Damian hisses. “He can’t know this kind of knowledge, he could be a liability and there’s a big chance that he could get hurt.”

“Okay, we’ve obviously had very different childhoods, but I was raised to share pretty much everything with my family, and Paco is my cousin, so yeah, I tell him about stuff,” Jaime says. “Trust me, if he’s in danger, I’ll protect him.”

“Telling him about this is against protocol,” Damian says. “Does my father know about this?”

“Oh, shit, he pulled the ‘my father’ card,” Paco says, a little impressed. “Who’s your father, Robin?”

“His dad is Batman, and no, I haven’t gotten the opportunity to tell fucking  _ Batman _ about my cousin Paco, but that doesn’t even matter,” Jaime says. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and sends an SOS text to Bart. “Just chill, alright? Everything’s gonna be fine.”

Damian crosses his arms and glares out the window. “Fine.” 

“Are most ten year olds this bratty?” Paco asks Jaime. 

“Hell if I know, man,” Jaime replies. 

“I’m eleven!”

**bart:** lol baby bird driving u crazy??

**jaime <3: ** not yet but i’m getting the feeling that he will

**bart:** he’s in love w u he’ll shut up if u ask nicely

**jaime <3: ** i’m not gonna ask him to shut up

**bart:** why

**bart:** i do it all the time

**bart:** he never listens tho bc he hates me or whatever

**jaime <3: ** he doesn’t hate you

**bart:** he hates me bc he’s in love w u and ur fucking me and he hates that

**jaime <3: ** oh my god

**bart:** i’m right and u know it!! lol

**jaime <3: ** how is it going for you and cassie over there?

**bart:** uh p good

**bart:** i was able to isolate the psychic frequency mist girl makes when she does her funky mist thing so we’re tracking the signal

**jaime <3: ** i have no idea what that means but i love it when you do nerdy things

**bart:** careful, wouldn’t want to make ur little side hoe jealous

**bart:** want me to send u the frequency thing tho? i’m sending it to tim i’m sure baby bird could figure it out

**jaime <3: ** i mean sure

**jaime <3: ** ok i gotta go

**bart:** luv u :*

**bart:** expect many kisses when we get back

**jaime <3: ** i still owe you those five bucks

**bart:** MANY MANY KISSES!!!!!!!!!!

“Hey, can you stop sexting your boyfriend for two seconds and help me with this?” Cassie snaps, shoving Bart’s shoulder. She’s holding a handheld device he made like it’s a bird, in delicate hands about a foot away from her body. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.” 

Bart sighs, shoving his phone into his pocket, and takes the device from Cassie. “Just keep walking until it starts beeping a lot. It’s like a metal detector but for cute girls who escaped the DEO.”

“You gotta wonder why they were keeping her locked up,” Cassie mutters. She follows behind Bart, her hands shoved in her pockets. “Like, nothing in her file implied that she’s dangerous or could be a threat to anyone. Why was she in captivity?” 

“Too powerful for her own good, probably,” Bart suggests. “Maybe she couldn’t control herself. Maybe they were afraid she would do something by accident.” 

“I just don’t like the idea of keeping innocent people in cages,” Cassie says. 

“You’re preaching to the choir, sis,” Bart says, giving her a pointed look. “I spent a lot of my life behind bars.” 

“You escaped, though,” Cassie says. “Just like she did. I’m sure she had a really good reason to escape. Not to bag on our own government, but I wouldn’t put it past the DEO to mistreat metahumans.” 

“You’re not calling off the mission, are you?” Bart asks. “Because I worked really hard on this and I’m gonna be super pissed if you made me waste time that I could have spent with Jaime.” 

Cassie looks at Bart with mild disgust. “You spend way too much time with him anyways, you need to learn how to be independent.” 

“I am independent. I just love him,” Bart says. Cassie rolls her eyes. “Come on, you and Conner are way worse.” 

“Conner and I are nothing like you and Jaime,” Cassie states. “We can totally function without each other. You shouldn’t have to rely on someone to make you happy.” 

Bart looks at Cassie, perplexed. “I can be happy without Jaime. He isn’t the only reason I’m happy. The point is that I want to be happy  _ with  _ him.” 

“Okay, whatever,” Cassie says. 

“Dude, if I knew how to psychoanalyze, I would be ripping your ass right now,” Bart tells her. “But I honestly have no idea what any of that meant.” 

“Focus on the mission, Bart,” Cassie snaps. 

Bart rolls his eyes and looks back down at his device. “Damn. Are you on menopause or something?”

Cassie takes a deep breath. “I swear to God, if you keep talking about this, I am going to hurt you and you are not going to like it.”

“I love it when you talk dirty,” Bart says, looking down at Cassie with bright eyes. She glares at him and he barrels on. “Anyways, I’m getting a little something from over there, come on.”

“How can you tell?” Cassie asks. “It’s not doing anything.”

Bart shows her the little screen on the device. “You see how the scale is picking up a little when I hold it in this direction?” he says and Cassie nods. “We keep walking in this direction and see if the signal gets stronger, if it doesn’t, we keep looking somewhere else.”

“Are you serious? That’s going to take forever,” Cassie whines. 

“Would you rather go over every single square inch of this town and the surrounding desert?” Bart snaps. Cassie rolls her eyes. “I thought so. Now, come on, this is going to be a long night.”

It’s well into the early hours of the morning when the device starts beeping in a staccato beat. Cassie takes a minute to wake up, since she’d been spacing out for the better part of their journey. Bart points in the direction of a cave opening in the cliff that they’re approaching. 

“This is like that one Scooby Doo movie in the desert,” Bart says. “Not the one with the aliens, the one in the canyon.”

“Yeah,  _ Specter of Shadow, _ I’m familiar,” Cassie mutters in response. She taps her bulletproof arm bands together for good luck as she peers into the cave. “Shit, okay. Are we going in?”

Bart hands her the device. “You go in first, I’ll let the others know that we found something and follow you in a bit. She’ll probably feel more safe if it’s just you.”

“Okay. See you soon.” 

They bump fists and Cassie heads into the cave. She’s about twenty feet from the cave opening when it starts getting hard to see so she pulls her flashlight out of her back pocket and turns it on. Canyons, deserts, rocks, caves, none of that has ever really been her scene, so she’s not too excited to be delving deep into a big ass rock. The walls of the cave start to get damp and she can hear the distant drip drop of some more water somewhere else in the cave. 

Eventually, not too deep in, she starts to see another light source and finds herself in a staring contest with a smudgy, almost transparent girl, sitting on the wet rock floor beside a fluorescent lamp. 

“Hi,” Cassie says, and it reverberates quietly through the cave. 

“Who are you?” The girl’s mouth moves but it takes a while for the sound to follow. 

“I’m Wonder Girl, I’m with the Justice League,” Cassie says. “Can you tell me who you are?” 

“I don’t know.” 

“Okay, that’s okay.” Cassie crouches to be at eye level with the girl but doesn’t sit because she doesn’t want her butt to get wet. “I’m here to help you. Will you let me do that?” 

The girl just blinks at her. 

“You’re a long way from home and I just want to get you back,” Cassie continues. 

“I won’t go back,” the girl says. “I won’t go.” 

Cassie nods. “Okay. I won’t make you go back, but will you come with me?” 

“Where?” the girl asks. 

“Somewhere safe,” Cassie tells her. “A cave, a little bit like this one, but with a kitchen and beds and people who will never hurt you. Are you okay with that?” 

The girl seems to think about it for a bit before nodding. Cassie stands up and holds out her hand, and the girl delicately reaches out to take it. Her hand is barely there and it almost feels like Cassie is holding a bubble or a cloud. 

They make it out of the cave and Bart greets them with a big smile. After Cassie (obviously) and Jaime (he has a younger sister, so he’s pretty sensitive), he is usually the best at handling female victims. Tim and Conner are nice, but they’re pretty much Men TM so. Yeah. 

“Hi, I’m Impulse, you must be Mist Girl,” he says. 

“Hello,” the girl says. 

“Tell the others to meet us at the cave,” Cassie says. “Let’s get going.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> greta is my BABY btw


	4. introspection

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: gay buffoonery ahead
> 
> not @ me using heterosexual relationships to further my Homosexual Agenda

Cassie has Bart set up a room for Mist Girl and get her settled while she sits with Tim in his detective station, looking up anything they can on her history. 

“Bruce is going to be pissed at you if you don’t give her to him,” Tim says, his fingers flying over the keyboard. Images and pages are popping up all over his monitors. “He’s gonna try to take her from us.”

“You’ve fought him before, we can do it again,” Cassie says tiredly. She flops back on his bed. “You should have seen her face when I said I was going to take her home, she’s terrified of them. I can’t make her go back.” 

“You can’t free every single metahuman that’s been mistreated by the government,” Tim says flatly. “That would take years of effort.”

Cassie glares at the ceiling. “Watch me. I got time.” 

“Finding them, getting them out, therapy and cognitive behavioral training to try to undo the damage that the government has done,” Tim rattles off, spinning around in his chair. “All the stress and work would drive you insane.”

“Your time on evil Earth made you a pessimist,” Cassie says. 

“It’s fine, I’ve always been a pessimist,” Tim replies. “Given the resources from the DEO and my own detective intuition, this is what I’ve been able to put together: the DEO is holding her against her will.”

Cassie sits up and squints at him. “That’s it?”

“There isn’t a lot to go on,” Tim tells her. He points at his monitors. “Alright, so. They found her when she was hanging out in this old foreclosed house in Chicago and neighbors were complaining and stuff, they grabbed her, and they’ve been holding her in an ‘orphanage’ run by the DEO. This orphanage holds about a dozen metahuman children in terrible conditions, which aren’t held up by any policies. She escaped three days ago, we got her, and now she’s here. That’s about as much as I’ve got for a bio right now.” 

“We gotta help the other kids,” Cassie says. 

Tim smiles sadly at her. “One thing at a time. Do you have any plans on how to get them to let us keep her here?”

“I mean, we could just not give her back,” Cassie tries. “What are they going to do, kill us?”

“They might,” Tim says. 

“You’re not helping,” Cassie groans. 

There’s a knock on the door and it slides open to show Conner. “Hey, um, Red Tornado just told Batman that we have the Mist Girl.”

Both Tim and Cassie jump to their feet and run to the team room. Red Tornado is in the middle of the team room, in a video call with Batman, who is up on the display screen. He’s wearing his cowl, so they can’t see his face, but they’ve got a good guess that he’s frowning very hard at them right now. 

“Why didn’t you tell me that you found the girl?” he asks immediately. 

Tim looks at Cassie, obviously letting her give the explanation. “I’m sorry, I forgot.” 

“You can’t forget things like this,” Batman says. “If you can’t follow directions, you won’t be given missions anymore. I’m on my way over with the director of the DEO right now.” 

“What? No, no, no,” Cassie blurts, waving her hands frantically. “No, um, I don’t think she’s ready to go back to the DEO.” 

Batman doesn’t seem very impressed. “That isn’t your decision to make.” 

“It actually is because, uh, she’s here in our cave now,” Cassie puts together slowly. “And we’re going to keep her here for a while. Please. Thank you.” 

“Tim,” Batman says, looking at his son. 

Tim puts his hands up. “I’m not on the team. It’s not up to me.” 

Batman looks to Red Tornado for some sort of support but Red Tornado lets him know that he will do whatever is in the best interest of the children. 

“Oh, dude,” Tim says, putting a hand on Red Tornado’s shoulder. “You’re my new father figure.” 

Conner snorts. 

“You’re welcome to visit, but you’re not taking her,” Cassie says. “So, uh, jot that down.” 

“I don’t have time for this,” Batman mumbles, and he turns off his side of the video call. 

“What’s the plan here?” Conner asks. 

Cassie sighs and shrugs. “I have no idea. I’m going to go check on Bart and see if they’re okay. Stall Batman if he shows up.” 

She leaves the boys in the team room and they stand in silence for a while. 

“What did you find out about her?” Conner asks eventually. 

“Not a whole lot more than we knew before,” Tim replies. “Cassie’s planning on leading a crusade against the DEO and we are majorly screwed if Batman puts up a fight.” 

The tubes announce an arrival and they wait apprehensively until Jaime walks in. He looks at them curiously and they look back at him. “Is Bart still with the girl?” 

“Yeah,” Conner says. 

“Cool.” Jaime moves between them to sit down on the couch and pull his phone out of his pocket. “I didn’t get to hear about how your expedition went.”

“We didn’t do too much, just some quality bro time,” Conner says. 

“Sounds fun,” Jaime says, not looking up from his phone. “Do you know when Bart will be done?” 

Tim snorts out a breathy laugh and crosses his arms. “Can you spend fifteen minutes without him?” 

“I could, but I’d rather not. Does that mean he’ll be done in fifteen minutes?”

“Jesus Christ,” Tim mutters and he goes into the kitchen. 

Conner considers his options before going to sit down on the couch with Jaime, leaving a good amount of space between them. “Do you need Bart for anything?” 

Jaime looks up from his phone. “Uh, no, not really, I just haven’t seen him in a couple of days.”

“How often do you guys see each other?” Conner asks. “Like, not on team time?” 

“Pretty much everyday,” Jaime says. “He’ll come over and we’ll hang out in El Paso or we’ll meet here. I’ve been to Central City a couple times but you know he’s got a thing about bothering his grandparents.”

“You go on dates everyday?” Conner says incredulously. 

Jaime frowns, thinking about it for a bit. “I mean, I guess they’re dates, but I never really think about it like that. We just like spending time together.” 

“Don’t you need space or whatever?” Conner asks. 

“Well, yeah, everyone needs some alone time,” Jaime says. “We don’t spend every waking moment together, I spend time with my family and I have to go to school and church and stuff, and he’s got his own life that he has to pay attention to.”

Conner doesn’t know if he’s ever had a conversation this long with Jaime before but he can’t stop asking questions. “How do you make time to see each other everyday?”

“It’s not like we have to make time to see each other,” Jaime tells him. “We just do it. We don’t really plan anything out, we just sort of show up for each other. If one of us doesn’t feel like it, we’ll just text or call. I mean, come on, you see Cassie off team all the time, right?” 

“Only because we go to the same school,” Conner points out. 

“You go on dates, though?” Jaime asks, perplexed. “You, like, hang out and stuff?” 

“Yeah, but maybe once every couple weeks,” Conner says. 

“All relationships are different, bro, I’m not trying to make you feel insecure or anything,” Jaime says. “You don’t have to go on dates everyday for it to be real. What matters is that you really like her. You like spending time with her, you like hearing her laugh, you like making her smile, sappy shit like that, you know?” 

“You feel that way about Bart?” Conner asks. 

Jaime looks at Conner like he’s crazy. “Dude, yeah, fucking obviously. I wanna spend the rest of my life with him, and if there’s anything after, I want to spend that with him as well.”

“That’s a lot of time,” Conner says quietly. 

“It’s never enough,” Jaime says. 

“How do you know?” Conner asks. “Like, how do you know that you feel that way about him?”

“I don’t know, I mean, when you know, you know,” Jaime says, shrugging. “You know?”

Bart comes into the team room then, cutting their conversation short, and squeals when he sees Jaime. He zooms over to jump into his boyfriend’s lap and starts peppering kisses all over his face. Jaime eventually gets Bart off of him and pulls him in the direction of their rooms with a mumbled explanation about making Conner feel uncomfortable. 

He’s left to sit alone with his feelings and his thoughts, two things he’s never been a fan of. He’s been alive for about three years now and there are still a lot of things about being Conner Kent - Kon-El - that don’t make a lot of sense. He’s not sure how real his feelings are. He’s a clone, so he’s not exactly a real person, but he’s organic rather than robotic. It’s all been explained to him before by Tim and Bart and Luthor but his smarts have never been something he’s prided himself in. 

What Jaime said sticks with him. He and Cassie really like each other the way Jaime explained it. At least he thinks they do. They haven’t spent a lot of time together since they started dating, which has been a good seven months. They don’t share any classes this year but their friend groups converged so they eat lunch together. They hung out a lot more before they started dating, funnily enough. He isn’t sure why. Cassie will drop in at his apartment every now and then when her mom is on her ass but outside of school and the team, they don’t do a lot together. He guesses they could be sort of distant because of all the stress they’ve been under. 

He likes spending time with her and he likes hearing her laugh and he likes making her smile. He knows that he wants her to be in his life but he isn’t sure how, he just knows that he wants her to be there, in any capacity. When he thinks about the rest of his life, he doesn’t see much. He doesn’t think about it a lot. Considering their line of work and how he was created, he isn’t sure how much longer he’s got. He doesn’t know if he’ll die young or live forever. 

Cassie Sandsmark is a smart, capable, beautiful, wonderful young woman who is also part god, so she won’t die unless she’s killed, which won’t happen, so it’s unlikely that she’ll get married to the first guy that she dates. 

Are they going to spend the rest of their lives together? Probably not. That’s a big doubt. But they’re happy together. They’re happy when they’re together. 

“Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum gone off to their love making shack?” Tim says and Conner almost jumps off the couch from being startled. 

“Uh, yes. No. I don’t know, I don’t think about that,” Conner says awkwardly. He clears his throat and rubs his hands on his pants. “Have you ever been in love?”

Tim gives him a weird look and sits down on the other end of the couch with a sandwich on a paper plate. “Not that I know of, no. I mean, I’ve had crushes and I’ve been with people, but none of it was love. I think one time I thought I was in love, but I wasn’t.” 

“How did you know?” 

“I just knew.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“I’m pretty sure I’ve never been in love,” Tim assures Conner. He takes a bite of his sandwich. “Why are you asking?”

“Jaime said some stuff, I don’t know,” Conner says. 

Tim sighs. “Don’t let Jaime and Bart be your standards for what a relationship should be like. They’re one in a million.” 

“But like. What if I don’t love Cassie?” Conner says. 

“Uh.” Tim scrambles for words to say in response to That. “Then you have to tell her. Look, you do you, figure out what it is you’re trying to do with Cassie, and I’ll support you all the way but I’m maybe not the right person to come to for relationship advice.” 

“I don’t have anyone else to ask,” Conner says helplessly.

Tim shifts in his seat and takes a bite of his sandwich. “What did Jaime say to you?” 

“He was just talking about how much time he spends with Bart and how he feels about him and, I don’t know, I guess it’s just not like that with me and Cassie,” Conner says. “It made me start to think.”

“A dangerous pastime,” Tim deadpans. Conner gives him a look and he puts his sandwich on the floor to clap his hands together. “You know, I met both you and Cassie of Earth-23.”

“Were we together?” Conner asks. 

“No,” Tim tells him. “Barbara had my double killed not long after she brought me there so I could pose as him. Earth-23 Cassie was leading her own troop of Amazons and Earth-23 Conner was here at the cave. The first day I walked in, he was sitting here, on this couch. He hugged me and he started talking about all this stuff that I didn’t know anything about and I thought that maybe he wasn’t so bad, but I was wrong, because he did horrible things. It was like he had no idea that what he was doing was wrong, he just did it and he came back to me and started talking about dinner. For a while, I kept associating him with you, but I eventually realized that you’re two different entities. Six months in, he kissed me for the first time. It was so weird, he was a whole different person when he was with me, he was adoring and attentive and he always seemed so genuinely happy to see me, and it was so hard to not fall into the fantasy. I had to remember what I was there for, what was happening, and I tried to - to harden my heart, and remind myself that I had a job to do, but then he’d turn around and be so sweet, and I fell for it all over again.”

Part of Conner feels horrified by what Tim is telling him and part of him is entranced by the story, like it’s a novel or one of those Lifetime movies that Cassie makes him watch. “Dude, that’s so fucking sad. You said you killed him.” 

“I did,” Tim says. “You asked me if I’ve ever been in love and I said that I thought I was. I  _ thought _ I was in love with him. I knew he was in love with me and I thought that maybe I could convince him to do the right thing, but he found out what I was there for, and he turned me in. He oversaw the torture they put me through, and, yeah, that was about it for the love. When the time came, I killed him. I had to.” 

“That’s a really crazy story and I’m so sorry you went through that, but how exactly is that supposed to help me right now?” Conner says. “That’s a lot different than what I’m going through with Cassie.” 

Tim shrugs and picks up his plate from the floor. “I just want you to know that everyone is different. I can’t tell you what to think. You have to come to your own conclusions by yourself, or they won’t be yours.”

“You got weird on Earth-23,” Conner remarks. 

“Uh, duh, weird shit happened to me,” Tim replies. “Two years, man. I am a changed person.”

“It wasn’t - wasn’t it hard to see us? After everything we put you through?” Conner asks curiously. “I mean, wasn’t it weird? At least a little?” 

“I told you, I stopped associating Earth-23 people from the people here pretty early on,” Tim says. “Yeah, it’s a bit unnerving that you all look the same, but you’re different. I know that.” 

“Did it change the way you think about me?” Conner asks. “With the whole being in love and then torturing each other thing?” 

“At the beginning, yeah,” Tim admits. “Every time I saw your face I didn’t know if I wanted to kiss you or punch you, but, it wasn’t you that did all that to me. It was someone else.” 

Conner lets out a deep breath. “I’m so sorry you had to go through that.” 

“Again. Not your fault,” Tim says. He finishes off his sandwich. “Stop thinking for a while, you’re gonna hurt your pretty little head. Watch  _ Twilight _ or something. I’m sure Cassie will be done soon.” 

He flips over the back of the couch and goes back to the kitchen to dispose of his plate, leaving Conner in the team room by himself yet again. 

That night, Conner has a dream. He usually has dreams, but they’re often just crappy little scenarios like walking in on Superman washing grapes in the bathtub or Kacey Musgraves following him around and serenading him during finals week. 

This dream is different because it has real, actual substance that might mean something. 

In his dream, he’s in the team cave. He’s sitting on the couch with Tim’s head in his lap. Tim seems to be sleeping while Conner threads his hands through his hair, silently marveling in how soft it is. He’s looking down at Tim and has a weird feeling that he’s never felt before, like he’d do anything, literally anything, to keep him looking this happy, this peaceful. 

Tim wakes up and blinks a couple times before pushing himself up off of Conner’s lap. Conner smiles at him and leans in to press a kiss against his lips.

“Don’t,” Tim says, and his voice is groggy. He leans away and rubs his eyes. “I’m always gross after a nap. I drool.” 

“I know,” Conner replies. He reaches out to run his thumb over Tim’s bottom lip. “It’s disgusting.” 

“If it’s so disgusting, then don’t let me nap on you,” Tim says. 

Conner smiles and shakes his head. “But you’re so cute when you sleep.” 

“Oh, so now you’re watching me while I sleep?”

“What else do you expect me to do?” Conner tugs Tim so that he’s sitting in his lap. 

“Literally anything else,” Tim says, resting his hands on Conner’s shoulders. 

“Anything?” Conner asks. 

_ “Anything.” _

They’re a breath away from each other when Cassie comes in from the kitchen, and they just barely pull apart to turn to her. She stares at them blankly, like she’s figuring out how she’s supposed to react to this. 

An excruciatingly silent moment passes before she lets out a humorless laugh. “God, you know, I knew it, but I just pretended that I didn’t.” 

“Cassie,” Conner says, pushing Tim off of him. 

“You never really wanted  _ me, _ did you?” Cassie says. “All this time, it was Tim you wanted, but he was never available, so you just dumped it all on the next person you saw.” 

“No,” Conner repeats. He stands up and reaches out to touch Cassie but she swats his hand away. “Come on, Cassie, you gotta believe me.” 

“Screw you, Kon,” Cassie snaps. “Just - just tell me one thing. Do you want to be with me?” 

Conner’s heart falls to his stomach. “I don’t want to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you.” 

“That’s not what I asked.” 

“What do you want me to tell you?” Conner says, growing desperate. 

“I want you to tell the truth!” Cassie says. “Do you want to be with me?” 

Conner wakes up then, in a cold sweat with his heart racing. He’s been yelled at by Cassie twice, maybe three times, and it’s always a terrifying experience, because she doesn’t get mad. Sure, she’s snarky and impulsive, and she gets irritated, but she never gets mad, so when she’s mad, she’s _mad_. 

_ “I don’t want to hurt you,”  _ Conner had said. 

_ “That’s not what I asked,”  _ Cassie had replied.  _ “I want you to tell the truth!”  _

Conner had told the truth. He doesn’t want to hurt her, that’s the last thing he would ever want to do. He thinks about what he wants and, for a while, he doesn’t know. He doesn’t want to hurt Cassie, but he can practically hear her voice telling him that not wanting to hurt someone is different than actually wanting them. 

“Shit,” Conner says, rubbing his face. 

He has to break up with Cassie. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no one: 
> 
> cassie: THE PATRIARCHY IS HOLDING ME BAC


	5. the gods lie

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i made this character when i was like 11 and i had a whole universe with like fairies and vampires and witches and stuff and i legit forgot that he wasn’t already Canon lmao his name is Metus and he’s an alcoholi

“Hey,” Tim says, knocking his fist against the doorframe of Cassie’s room. “Can you come to the manor with me? I haven’t heard anything from the big man since he said he was coming yesterday and I’m a little concerned.” 

“I’m in the middle of something,” Cassie says, not looking up from where she’s focused on styling the mist girl’s hair at her vanity. 

Tim sighs. “Is braiding Mist Girl’s hair more important than my father’s life?” 

“We’re calling her Suzie for now,” Cassie replies. “And, honestly, yeah, I don’t think we have to rush to the aid of Batman himself. He’s a grown ass man. I’m almost done, wait for me in the team room.” 

“You got it, boss.” Tim closes the door behind him as he leaves. 

“I don’t want to be a burden.” Suzie’s voice is quiet but it carries, almost like she’s a voice in your head. “You can go do your team thing.” 

“No, no, it’s probably not that important,” Cassie assures her. She loops a hair tie around the end of the braid. “There. You look so pretty. Now, since your hair is a little wet, it’ll dry all loopy like this and it’ll be curly when you take the braid out, so cute.” 

“Thank you,” Suzie says. 

Cassie pats her head. “Do you want to go back to your room or do you want to hang out with Conner?” 

Suzie shrugs. “I don’t know.” 

“Okay, come on.” Cassie grabs Suzie’s hand and pulls her out to the kitchen. “Hey, Kon, sit with Suzie for a bit?” 

Conner looks up from his bowl of oatmeal that he doesn’t look anywhere near close to finishing. “Sure. I actually wanted to talk to you about something.” 

“Yeah, I’m dealing with some bat stuff right now, we’ll talk later,” Cassie says. She pulls out a chair at the table for Suzie. “Just make sure she doesn’t die until I get back.”

“It’s kind of important,” Conner says. 

“And we will talk about it, I promise, but I’ve got Tim to get to,” Cassie says. She looks at his bowl. “Why do you insist on making yourself oatmeal everyday? You never finish it.” 

Conner mumbles a response and Cassie leaves them to go to the team room where Tim is standing at the display monitors. 

“He won’t respond to my texts and Alfred isn’t picking up the phone,” Tim says, jumping right into it. “We usually have a line open for the whole - squad or whatever, and neither of them are answering there either.”

“Why don’t you ask Nightwing to check?” Cassie suggests. 

“I did but he doesn’t think it’s a big deal,” Tim replies. “Come on, it’ll be quick, I just want to see if everything at the manor is okay, hopefully I’m just overthinking it.” 

Cassie sighs and runs a hand over her face. “Okay, yeah, alright. Let’s suit up and bring Jaime and Bart just in case. Do you think Damian should come?” 

“No, I have a really bad feeling that there’s something wrong and I don’t want to put him in too much danger,” Tim says. 

“Oh, but you’re fine pulling me into it?” Cassie says. 

“You are not my little brother,” Tim tells her. “I’ll suit up and get the van ready.” 

They part ways and Cassie takes a deep breath to sort herself out. She’s used to having a lot on her plate. She’s the vice president of the Asian Student Union at her high school this year, as well as being involved in two other clubs, she’s taking two AP classes this year, along with the rest of her classes being honors, she’s in the middle of applying for college, she works the reception at her aunt’s hair salon three days a week, and that’s just her civilian life. On Wonder Girl time, she’s the leader of the team, which means that Red Tornado contacts her about all the missions, and everyone comes to her for help with whatever problems they’re having. Right now, she’s got homework waiting for her at home, a mysterious ghost girl that she’s trying to protect from the government, and Tim’s whole weird vibe about Batman being in trouble. She’s tired and she just wants to sleep, but she can’t. She just has to breathe focus. She’ll be alright.

“Hey, Bart,” she says, knocking on his door. “Is Jaime here?” 

Bart opens the door and Cassie peers over his shoulder to see Jaime lying on the bed. 

“How may I assist you, my queen?” Bart asks. 

“I want you guys to come with me and Tim to the manor real quick, he’s worried that something is wrong with his dad,” Cassie says. “Suit up and meet us at the tube.”

“Sure thing, mamacita,” Bart says. “See you in a bit.” 

The door closes in her face and she turns to go to the locker room to put on her suit. Conner walks in while she’s pulling on her pants. 

”Can we talk now?” he says. “Please?”

“Uh, yeah, if you can make it quick,” Cassie says. “It sounded like it was important to you, though, so you’d probably want to wait until I’m done with bat business.”

Conner leans against the lockers and watches her pull her boots on. “I really think we should talk about it right now before going forward.”

“The fuck does that mean?” Cassie asks, frowning at him. 

“I’ve just been thinking a lot, like I’ve done more thinking in the past two days than I have my whole life,” Conner says. “And, like, looking inside myself, emotionally.”

Cassie squints at him, trying to figure out if he’s joking or not. “Um. Okay? I promise we’ll talk about it as soon as I get back but I  _ really _ need to go.” 

“I don’t know how to say this without it sounding bad,” Conner says, following her out of the locker room, “or without hurting your feelings, but I really need to say it before I chicken out and it’s too late.”

“Go for it,” Cassie mutters, adjusting her arm bands. 

“It’s just that with Tim back and Jaime and Bart and that Suzie girl, there’s been a lot going on and I know that we’re both super busy -”

“One of us more than the other, apparently.” 

“- and we haven’t had time to really talk recently, but I had a really eye opening dream, and Tim told me a crazy story that I can’t stop thinking about -”

“Uh-huh.” 

“Cassie, I’m trying to break up with you.” 

Cassie stops walking and turns to Conner. They’re right in front of the zeta-tube, and Jaime and Bart have stopped their own conversation to listen in, and Conner is looking down at Cassie like she’s some sort of injured animal. 

“What?” Cassie says. 

“You’re wonderful and you’re beautiful and I like you so, so much, but there’s just not enough here,” Conner tells her, like he’s been rehearsing that line in his head for hours. 

Cassie crosses her arms and tries to stay composed. “Not enough of what?” 

_ “Want,” _ Conner says. “I kept thinking about what I really want and I don’t want to hurt you, but that’s -”

“Not the same as wanting me,” Cassie finishes for him. She can hardly believe what’s happening, and all that she can hear is the sound of rushing water in her ears, like she’s trying to block it all out, like if she doesn’t hear it, it won’t be real. “You don’t want me.” 

“I’m sorry,” Conner says quietly. “Cass, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s Tim, isn’t it?” Cassie says. 

Conner sighs and shakes his head. “Not exactly? I mean, kind of, we were talking and he gave me a lot to think about, and I just - I know what I want now and I can’t keep this up with you if it’s not what I want, it’s not fair to either of us, especially to you. You deserve to be with someone who wants to be with you.” 

“Yeah, I do,” Cassie agrees. She wipes her face with the heel of her hand and turns to leave. “I have to go.”

“Wait, please, Cassie, you’re still my best friend, and the best team leader we’ve had, and I don’t want to ruin that,” Conner pleads, following her. 

Cassie spins around to put a hand on his chest and gently push him away. “I’m happy for you, I genuinely am, I really just want you to be happy, so I’m glad that you’ve figured this all out, but I can’t be around you right now, and I’m going to need some space for a while, so please just leave me alone.” 

She walks to the zeta-tube and it announces her exit. When she gets through, she’s in a broken telephone booth in a dirty alley in Gotham City, and Tim is in the van already, parked against a brick building. She goes to join him and Bart and Jaime come through right after her. 

“Hey, Cassie, I’m sorry,” Jaime says, putting a hand on her shoulder. 

Tim frowns as he starts up the van. “What happened?” 

“Nothing,” Cassie mutters.

“She got dumped,” Bart whispers loudly, and Jaime smacks him. 

“Oh, god.” Tim stalls the van and turns to face her. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Cassie snaps. “Let’s just go to the manor.” 

“Are you sure?” Tim asks. “Jaime and I could go by ourselves and you and Bart could just go back to the cave.” 

“I’m not going back to the cave, Tim, just drive,” Cassie says. 

Tim looks at Bart, who shrugs, and does as he’s told. 

The drive to the manor is quiet and tense. Tim wants to ask questions but he doesn’t want to make Cassie more upset. She keeps her arms crossed as she glares out the window, while Bart and Jaime take turns looking at each other when the other is looking away, like it’s 1890 and they’re two boys at an English boarding school who have fallen deeply in love and their love is forbidden. 

Tim hits the brakes when they come up to the front gate and leans forward against the steering wheel to squint at the manor up the hill. “I knew it.” 

“Knew what?” Jaime asks. 

“We have a security system,” Tim explains, backing out of the driveway. “If there’s something wrong and they can’t call us, Alfred’s got a remote that will pull out blue curtains on the top floor. That way we’ll know when we come back. If you can see, the curtains up there are blue.” 

“What do we do?” Cassie asks. 

“I’m gonna go around to the back of the estate, there’s a tunnel that leads to a shelter on the other side of the lake,” Tim says. “There’s a surveillance center in there that we can check to see what’s going on.” 

“Bart, call Conner and tell him to be on standby,” Cassie says. “Is there a way we can let Nightwing know what’s happening?” 

“Do you guys have some sort of special bat family psychic communication?” Bart says curiously. 

Tim rolls his eyes. “I’ll take care of Nightwing.” 

It takes a couple minutes for them to drive around the fence and Tim fiddles with some little trinkets in his utility belt before the ground in front of them drops. 

“Oh, shit,” Bart gasps. “You meant, like, a secret tunnel.” 

“Your dad is hella paranoid,” Jaime adds. 

“It’s only paranoid if there’s no real threat.” Tim slowly starts rolling them down through the tunnel. “Obviously, the threat is very real.” 

“Was this always here or did Batman make it when he became Batman?” Cassie asks, looking out her window. 

Tim shrugs. “I don’t know, I never asked.”

They eventually make it to a thick metal garage door that opens for them and Tim pulls them in. The shelter is everything that Cassie expected it to be - steel and dusty, filled with gadgets and devices, barack looking beds, and a kitchen. 

“Damn, I know where I’m going when the world inevitably ends in thirty years,” Jaime mutters. 

“Oh, that won’t happen for a couple more centuries and humans will be very extinct by then,” Bart says.

They all get out of the van and follow Tim to the security center. He turns it on and dozens of monitors light up, each showing a different section of the manor. 

“Oh my god. Uh, oh my god,” Cassie says awkwardly, pointing at the monitors near the top right. “What the hell is that?” 

There are huge, bug-like monstrosities crawling around the east wing of the manor. They are truly, truly disgusting, uglier than anything Cassie has ever seen in her entire life. 

“How did they get inside the house and why didn’t Batman just take them all out?” Bart asks. “They don’t look intelligent.” 

Tim squints at the monitors. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.” 

“There! He’s right there,” Cassie says, pointing at another monitor in the center. Batman is wearing business casual clothes, like he just got home from playing golf with a potential investor, lying motionless on the carpeted floor of his bedroom. “Shit, is he dead? He can’t be dead. Can Batman die?” 

“Those things couldn’t have done that to him,” Tim says. “They have to have some kind of master, or hive mind control.” 

Cassie nudges Tim with her elbow. “There’s a guy in the foyer.” 

“Ooh, he looks evil,” Jaime remarks. “Who is he? Do we know him?” 

The man is tall and thin, dressed in all black, with a plague doctor mask covering his face. He’s sitting on the chaise with his hands folded in his lap. There’s something especially creepy about him that makes Cassie’s spine tingle. 

“He’s familiar but I don’t know how,” Tim says. He enlarges the image of the man on a bigger screen off to the side. “I’ll see if I can match his description to anyone in the League’s database.”

Bart tugs on Cassie’s arm and she turns to face him. “I told Conner that Batman’s been compromised and he said he’s on his way with Damian and Suzie should be secure until we’re done.”

Cassie nods. “Good. We’ll need his help to take out those bugs.” 

“But are you sure -”

“I’m not going to let my personal life affect team missions, especially when there are lives at stake,” Cassie says sharply. 

Bart gives her a sad look but doesn’t push it. 

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit,” Tim exclaims suddenly. He pulls a USB flash drive out of his utility belt and plugs it into the computer. “Shit, shit, shit.”

“Hey, bud, how’s it going?” Jaime asks. 

Tim opens the file that he had on the flash drive and starts combing through folders. “I brought an index from the Justice League of Earth-23 just in case I needed it for anything,” he tells them. He opens a file that has what looks like a mugshot of the man sitting in the foyer. “His name is Metus. I heard the Batman over there mention him a couple times but I never saw him.”

“You knew that someone from Earth-23 was going to come here,” Cassie says, thinking back to their first conversation when he returned. “Is that the real reason why you came back? Are you here for him?” 

“I came back because I wanted to come home, I just knew that there was a possibility that I would be followed,” Tim says. He closes the file and goes back to the van. “We have to go in and stop him.”

“How exactly are we supposed to stop him?” Bart asks. “I mean, who even is this guy? How’d he get here and how did he do that to Batman?”

“He’s a god,” Tim says. “The god of fear. All we have to do is not be scared of him and it shouldn’t be hard to kill him.”

“You say that like it’s so easy,” Jaime says. “Tim, the dude has an army of bugs.”

_ “You’re _ a bug,” Tim points out. 

“That is so different,” Jaime says. 

“How are you planning on getting to the manor?” Cassie asks Tim. 

“There’s a boat in here. We can take it on the lake and sneak in through the Batcave,” Tim says. He leads them through a series of doors to get to a dock with a sleek, black motorboat that looks exactly like what one of Batman’s boats would look like. “All aboard. We have gods to kill.”


	6. playtime’s over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh so there’s spanish in this chapter and i apologize if it’s bad, all i have is the spanish that i grew up speaking with my family, i dont know anything about grammar

Tim glances over his shoulder at Cassie, who’s two steps behind him. They’d let themselves into the manor and left Jaime in the boat to wait for Conner and Damian to show up. It’s obvious that she’s trying to act like everything is normal but she’s just having a really bad time and he can’t help but feel responsible. He was the one that told Conner all that stuff yesterday, and he told Conner that he should tell Cassie that he didn’t love her. 

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly. 

Cassie looks at him, seeming perplexed as to why he would apologize. “For what?” 

“I know what it’s like to have your heart broken by Conner,” Tim says. “We were kind of an item on Earth-23, it’s a long story, but I ended up killing him, it wasn’t fun for anyone, overall, so like. I’m sorry.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say he broke my heart, just really hurt my feelings,” Cassie says. She lets out a deep breath. “You know what’s so funny? I’ve kind of been waiting for this to happen since we first started dating. I knew that this would happen but I thought that maybe I was wrong, I was just being insecure.” 

“I’m really sorry,” Tim repeats. “I wish I could do something to make it better.” 

“It’s not your fault,” Cassie says, looking at him with earnest eyes. “I promise, I don’t blame any of this on you, okay? It wasn’t you or me, it was all him. It’s not our fault he’s such a dumbass.” 

Tim laughs a little. “Yeah.” 

“I thought we were supposed to be fucking quiet,” Bart hisses from his place at the front of their parade. “Which way to his room?” 

“Take a left at the top of the stairs,” Tim says. “It’s at the end of the hall.”

Bart does as he’s told, and the other two follow him. He pushes the door in, careful to not make any sound. “How exactly are we supposed to get him out of here without those bug things finding us?” 

“You can’t just zoom out?” Cassie says. “You know, just - pick him up and run out all quick like?” 

“Do I look like I can pick him up?” Bart snaps, waving his arms. “These are as thick as stick bugs.” 

“Okay, well, I’ll pick him up, you two cover me while we run back out to the boat,” Cassie says. She spreads her hands and looks at her boys expectantly. “Cool?” 

“Yeah, cool.” 

“Lit.” 

They make their way into the room and Cassie immediately holds out a hand to stop the other two. “There’s a thing in here.”

“A what?” Tim asks, frowning. 

“One of those fucking bug things!” Cassie says. “What are we supposed to do?” 

“Uh, fucking run,” Bart blurts. He turns to leave the way they cam and Tim catches him arm. “Dude, I’m scared, I wanna go home!”

Footsteps clack towards them, like claws on tile, and they’re all caught frozen in place as the big bug thing looms over them. It’s got hundreds of beady little eyes on its head that are looking right at them. 

“Oh my god,” Cassie mutters under her breath. “It is so ugly.” 

“Don’t be rude,” Tim says and she gives him a glare. 

They stare at the bug thing and the bug thing stares at them for a while until it lunges towards them and Bart shrieks at the top of his lungs. Cassie instinctively punches its head and, to their horror, it lobs to one side, stretching out like gum. After a second, it whips back to the body. 

“Oh my god!” Bart screams. 

“What the hell,” Tim says. 

Cassie backs up, wringing her wrist. “Okay, I hate this.” 

The bug thing lunges forward again and this time Tim steps up, whipping out his staff. They spar for a couple moments until Cassie comes up from behind, wraps her whips around its head, and yanks as hard as she can. The head comes clean off and the body disintegrates into a pile of dust on the floor. They stand there, staring at it in silence. 

“Well, we know how to kill them now,” Bart says after a second. 

“Foolish children,” a booming voice says, echoing through the room. They all step closer to each other and Bart grabs Tim’s hand. “You think I wouldn’t notice you trying to sneak in?”

“Dude, if the fucking Phantom from  _ Phantom of the Opera _ is here, I’m gonna dip so quick,” Bart says. 

“Playtime is over,” the voice says.

Everything goes black. 

Tim isn’t in the manor anymore. He’s in someone’s extremely large yard, during a party. He doesn’t even know whose yard it is, but it’s definitely not at the manor. It’s a warm summer day and people are milling around him. He looks down to see himself dressed in a white suit, which is weird, because white has never been his color, he’s aware of that. 

“Tim!” 

Tim spins around to see a tall man walking up to him. He’s wearing a dark red suit and his hair is slightly messy from the warm breeze passing through. 

“Jason?” Tim says, his voice barely a whisper as it hits him.

_ Jason isn’t alive.  _ Tim had never even spoken to Jason, all he knows of him are the various pictures around the manor and stories that Bruce and Dick have told him, but he never met Jason because Jason died before Tim became Robin. From what Tim has seen, though, Jason didn’t have that sharp of a jawline and he definitely wasn’t that tall. He died when he was fifteen, he shouldn’t look this mature. 

Jason raises his eyebrows. “Uh, yes? Dude, come on, the dance is starting.” 

“What?” Tim asks. 

Jason grabs Tim’s arm and pulls him toward a wooden square set up in the grass, surrounded by tables. Bruce and Diana are seated together, looking incredibly hot and impeccably dressed, like they’re at one of Bruce’s functions. Jaime and Bart are obviously sitting next to each other, both of them preoccupied with the cake. It’s the first time Tim has ever seen Bart in a suit. He looks somewhat confined and his tie is a little crooked. There’s a small band on the stage, playing a slow song. He lets Jason pull him, until he realizes who is on the floor dancing. 

The man is wrenchingly familiar, from the way the suit tightly hugs his shoulders to the confidence in his movements, and the small smile of inexplicable happiness on his face. And the girl he’s dancing with. She looks stunning in her white dress that flows into a short train around her ankles. The way her arms are wrapped about her partner’s neck doesn’t look endearing or affectionate but a bit territorial, almost possessive. When her eyes flick over to Tim, a small smile crosses her features and he doesn’t have to wonder who she is anymore. 

“What’s wrong, baby bird?” Jason asks, coming up close behind him. “Aren’t you going to sit down?” 

Tim shakes his head. “Are they - is this a wedding?” he asks, frowning. “Why are they…?”

“Yes, it’s a wedding,” Jason says. “You’ve been helping them plan it for months.”

“Who?” Tim stutters, not able to take his eyes off the couple.

Jason hikes an eyebrow. “Conner and Cassie? Dude, are you okay?”

Conner opens his eyes and looks at Tim. They stare at each other for a few moments. Tim takes a sharp breath and turns, tearing his eyes away. He walks away briskly, balling his hands into fists and ignoring Jason calling out after him. 

Tim gets a good distance away before he realizes that his eyes are filled to the brim with tears. He takes a shaky breath and shuts his eyes. There’s a hand on his shoulder and he turns to see Jason again. 

“You are so naive,” he says icily. “How could you possibly believe that Conner would ever want you? That he would leave someone as perfect as Cassie for a mess like you? He made a mistake and he fixed it.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tim asks. 

Jason comes to stand beside him, not looking him in the eye. “You’re never going to get what you want. You’re the worst Robin, your father hated you, your friends were better off without you, and Conner will never want you back. You’re a discount Dick Grayson, a shitty replacement for me that Bruce didn’t even want. You will  _ never _ be us. You will never be enough.”

When Cassie opens her eyes, she’s surprised by how bright it is. It’s bright and hot and humid and she can hear wind and waves crashing somewhere near her. She’s standing in an open field of grass, wearing Amazonian armor, which she hasn’t worn since Diana took her to Themyscira to train three years ago. 

Something warm, wet, and sticky is on her hands and she looks down to see that they’re covered in blood. She almost screams but she bites her tongue. 

She looks over the grassy field she’s standing in and sees dozens of dead Amazonians - her  _ sisters _ . There’s no way something could have defeated the strongest women in the world like this.

She hears someone calling her name and she turns just before Diana wraps her hand around her throat and lifts her in the air. She gasps and reaches down to grab Diana’s wrist, even though she knows there’s nothing she can do to stop her. Diana is looking at her with pure hatred. She’s been angry at Cassie, and yeah, she’s yelled at her before, but she’s never looked at Cassie like this, like she wants her dead. 

“You did this,” Diana says. Cassie shakes her head and kicks her feet. “You did this to them.” 

Diana tosses her to the ground and she coughs as air rushes back into her lungs. 

“Diana,” she manages to get out. “I didn’t -”

Diana kicks her down again and then steps on her chest for good measure. “I should never have trusted you. You are nothing but a foolish, impudent child.” 

Cassie takes short breaths but she knows that she can’t fight Diana. “Please.” 

“You don’t deserve to speak to me.” Diana kneels down beside Cassie, who just watches her with wide, frightened eyes. She puts her hand firmly on Cassie’s chest and Cassie can physically feel her breath leaving her body. It’s a strange experience, almost like her life is being taken out of her, but it doesn’t hurt at all. It’s sort of a relief, but in a sad way, like pulling a sword from her gut when she knows it’ll kill her. 

Diana leaves, taking whatever semblance of hope Cassie had with her. She didn’t say anything but it was obvious what she’d done. 

She took away Cassie’s power. 

So, now, Cassie gets to her feet and she knows that she’s still strong, she can still fight, she still knows how to use a whip, she can still lead her team, but it’s not the same, because she’s no longer Wonder Girl. Being Wonder Girl didn’t define who she was but it sure as hell was a huge part of it. 

_ “Cassie!” _

Themyscira crumbles away and Cassie’s back in the manor. She turns around to see Tim running towards her. He throws himself at her and she catches him, taking a step back so she won’t fall over from the force. 

“What the hell happened?” Cassie asks when they break apart. “Where’d we go?” 

“I told you, he’s the god of fear, he does shit like that,” Tim tells her. “This is gonna be a lot harder than I thought.” 

“Oh, did you think that we’d just come in, knock him on his head, and be home in time for dinner?” Cassie snaps. The sound of the bug things moving around comes closer to them and Cassie grabs Tim and drags him down the hall. “We need to get Batman and Alfred and get out of here, regroup, and figure out what the hell we’re going to do.” 

“Yeah, it doesn’t look like Bruce and Alfred should be at the top of our priority list,” Tim mumbles. 

They back up against the wall as the bug things close in on them. Cassie clenches her fists tightly, taking a few steps back before ramming her heel into the wall. She curses under her breath and looks at the monsters coldly. “There is no way we’re going to be able to get out of here.”

“Well, not with that attitude,” Tim replies, twirling his staff carelessly. 

Cassie looks at him. “Now is not the time for your snarky remarks.” 

“Sorry. Nerves,” Tim replies. A stinger from one of the bug things flies towards Cassie, but before she can react, Tim flicks his hand out and grabs it. 

“Holy shit. You’re like a fucking Matrix character,” Cassie says, staring at the stinger with wide eyes. 

“Yeah, my dad is Batman, I’m a motherfucking ninja,” Tim grumbles.

“Alright,” Cassie said, craning her neck to look around the bug things. “I’m going to sprint, follow close behind.”

Tim nods. “Got it.”

Cassie takes a deep breath and pulls her whips out, running straight into the crowd of monsters. She turns backwards and shoots out her whips, her eyes screwed shut as if she’s just hoping for the best. The whips grab bug things as they move back, clearing the way for her as she runs backwards. She turns back around and runs the rest of the way to the balcony while re-attaching her whips to her belt. Tim follows behind her, taking out his own bugs. 

“Do you trust me?” Cassie asks when they reach the edge of the balcony, leaning over the railing to look at the lake below. 

Tim backs up next to her. “Yeah?”

“Then jump. I’ll be right behind you,” Cassie says. 

“What, no, I don’t like swimming,” Tim says. 

“Fucking whatever, Tim, just jump!” 

Tim vaults the railing and twists his body to dive soundlessly into the lake and Cassie falls a couple yards away from him. 

“Cassie!” Tim hisses. “Don’t make so much noise! Can’t you fly?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Cassie snaps. “I’m under a lot of pressure right now!” 

Tim rolls his eyes and swims towards the boat. He whacks the side of it. “Jaime!”

Jaime flinches at the sound of his voice and peers over the side. “Oh, shit, what the hell?”

“Open the ladder!” Cassie yells up. Jaime unlatches the ladder, and lets it fall into the water. 

Cassie climbs into the boat dripping wet and Tim is right behind her, shaking his head in an attempt to dry his hair out. 

“What happened to you guys?” Jaime asks, handing Cassie a towel. He grabs Tim’s hand and heaves him in. “Where’s Bart?”

“Fucking hallucinated our worst fears or something,” Cassie says, drying her hair. “How the hell are we supposed to get around that guy?”

“Shit, what’d you see?” Jaime asks curiously. 

“Diana took my powers away,” Cassie says. She looks at Tim. “What about you?” 

Tim fidgets awkwardly. “I’d rather not talk about it.”

“Where’s Bart?” Jaime asks, louder this time

“Bart, Batman, and Alfred are still in there,” Cassie says. “We need to get them out. Why aren’t Conner and Damian here?”

“They’re on their way, they had to bring Suzie,” Jaime tells her. “I’ll go get Bart.” 

“Metus is more powerful than anyone you’ve ever fought, Blue, you can’t go in alone,” Tim says emphatically. “You could get hurt and no one would be able to get to you. We don’t even know where Bart is, he could be anywhere in there, and it’s a big ass house.” 

Jaime activates his suit. “I’ll find him.” 

Bart finds himself in El Paso and his feet unconsciously take him to the cute brown house at the end of a quiet street. He knocks on the door and it takes a second to open. Jaime’s there with a wide, uncertain grin, resting a hand on the door frame as he looks down at Bart curiously. 

“Uh, hi,” he says. “Can I help you?” 

Bart tilts his head and frowns. “Yeah, can I come in?” 

“Are you one of those, like, Mormons, or whatever?” Jaime asks. “Because we’ve already found God, and my grandma would rather admit her real age than convert to a white man’s religion.” 

“What? No -”

“Okay, well, whatever you’re selling, we can’t take it, my dad hates solicitors,” Jaime says apologetically. “Sorry, man, I know it’s just your job.” 

Bart’s hand shoots out to hold the door before Jaime can close it. “What are you talking about, dude? I’m not selling anything, it’s me, it’s Bart.” 

Jaime looks at him carefully. “Um. Okay? Should I know who you are? Are you a famous person?”

“Is this a joke?” Bart asks incredulously. He doesn’t know if he should laugh or cry. “Am I being punked right now? Did Damian finally seduce you?” 

“What?” Jaime seems just as confused as Bart is. Someone yells at him from inside the house and he holds a hand up before turning to respond.  _ “Es un  _ Mormon _ , le diré que se vaya.” _

“Jaime, bro, you’re starting to freak me out,” Bart says. “You know, you can just tell me if you’re mad at me.” 

“I’m not mad at you, bro,” Jaime says pointedly. “I don’t even know who you are.” 

Bart narrows his eyes. “Did Damian do something to your brain?” 

“Who the heck is Damian? Why do you keep bringing up Damian?” 

“Jaime, come on” Bart says, ignoring the way his voice cracks. 

There’s more yelling form inside the house. Jaime sighs and turns around to yell back.  _ “¿Ya, que quieres que haga? No se irá, ¿quieres hablar con él? ¿Quieres decirle que de vaya?” _

Bart, for the life of him, cannot figure out what is happening. There is no way that Jaime doesn’t know who he is. Unless, of course, this is a different universe, and Jaime Reyes never met Bart Allen in this universe, but that wouldn’t make sense because Bart doesn’t remember leaving his own universe. He doesn’t really remember how he even got to El Paso. Jaime is just looking at him with empty eyes and Bart feels his heart shatter because Jaime used to look at him like he hung the moon and he’s always thought that their love could transcend realities. 

“Look, I’m sorry, I gotta go,” Jaime says, but he doesn’t seem sorry at all. He doesn’t love Bart, he doesn’t hate Bart, he feels  _ nothing  _ for Bart, which is worse. “Sorry. Bye.” 

The door slams closed in Bart’s face and he’s left staring at the knocker. He’s not going to cry. He won’t cry. Hell, he’s been shot before and he didn’t cry then, so why the fuck would he cry now? 

Not knowing what else to do, he runs to the nearest zeta tube and goes to the cave. It announces him as an unknown presence, just like it did when he first showed up from the future. 

He’s just barely entered the team room when he’s whacked hard on the back of his head and he doubles over. “What the fuck?” 

“Who are you? How did you get here?” Tim’s voice is harsher, colder than it has ever been. Bart blinks hard and looks up to see Tim standing over him with his arms crossed. “I asked you a question.” 

“I’m - I live here,” Bart says breathlessly. “Tim, something is wrong, I don’t know what’s going on, please you have to help me.” 

Tim raises his eyebrows and crouches down to give Bart a good look, and it’s painfully reminiscent of when they first met. “I knew it. Luthor must be using Cadmus’s labs again.” 

“Luthor - you mean Conner’s evil dad?” Bart asks. “What does he have to do with this?” 

“You don’t even know what you are,” Tim muses. 

“I do, I know who I am, I’m Bart, I’m your best friend,” Bart rambles, starting to blubber as his eyes fill with tears. “Tim, please, I love you, please don’t do this.” 

Tim looks searchingly into his eyes. “Fascinating.” 

Cassie and Conner enter the team room loudly and Bart looks at Cassie with wide, pleasing eyes. She narrows her eyes back at him and looks at Tim. 

“The fuck is this?” she asks. 

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Tim replies. “He calls himself Bart but he looks just like -”

“Barry,” Conner finishes for him. “You don’t think he’s a clone, do you?” 

“Guys! Are you serious? I’m not a clone!” Bart exclaims. “Cassie, please, please, look at me, remember me, you're the greatest person I know, you’re the only girl I’ve ever loved, please, you have to remember me.” 

Cassie frowns at him. “Kon wasn’t like this when we found him. This is different.” 

Bart can feel tears start to fall down his cheeks. The most important people in his life are looking at him like he’s a raccoon that snuck in through the kitchen door. He cries so hard his stomach begins to cramp and he screws his eyes shut, hoping that maybe when he opens them again he’ll be back -

“Bart!” It’s Jaime’s voice. Bart hiccups and blinks his eyes open just in time to see Jaime shedding his helmet and dropping to his knees to wrap his arms around him.  _ “ _ I’m sorry, I’m so sorry _ ,  _ I should have been here for you.” 

Bart sobs and brings his hands up to clutch Jaime’s arms. “You didn’t -”

“Look at me,  _ amorcito,”  _ Jaime whispers, holding Bart’s face in his hands. “I’m here, I’m here. It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay.”

It takes a couple minutes for Bart to calm himself down and he wipes his face roughly. “Tim and Cassie?” 

“They’re on the boat, they’re safe,” Jaime says. “I need to get you out of here.” 

Bart takes a shaky breath and nods. “Okay.” 

Jaime pulls him to his feet and looks him up and down for a second before scooping him up bridal style. Bart almost laughs, but it gets caught in his throat, and he wraps his arms around Jaime’s neck and rests his head against Jaime’s chest and lets himself be saved. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uh listen to six the musical, i highly recommend


	7. please work with me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: i’m literally the Worst at writing action, and it’s super obvious, i can only write comedic dialogue

Cassie wants to punch something but she can’t so she picks up a first aid kit and throws it into the water. 

“That was very weird of you to do,” Tim says flatly. 

“Tim, I swear to god, I am going to strangle you,” Cassie threatens. Tim holds his hands up and lowers his head in surrender. “How the  _ fuck _ are we supposed to get rid of this guy if every time we get near him he just makes us hallucinate our worst fears?” 

“We can wear helmets,” Bart suggests, gesturing around his head. He looks tiny where he is, sitting so close to Jaime that he’s almost on his lap. His tone is cheerful but Cassie can tell that he still feels a little off. He hasn’t been able to look anyone in the eye except for Jaime, and he won’t talk about it. “Like in  _ X-Men _ how the guy wore the special helmet, the hot German guy.” 

“You watched  _ X-Men?”  _ Conner asks. He’s sitting on the other side of Bart with his arm hanging around the backrest and he’s very pointedly not looking at Cassie. 

“You didn’t?” Bart shoots back. 

Conner frowns. “It’s not on Netflix.” 

“We could blow up the manor,” Damian says. 

“No, nope, we’re not doing that, Bruce and Alfred are still in there,” Tim says quickly. 

“Who gives a shit about Bruce and Alfred?” Bart scoffs. “I’m with the baby bird, I say light it up.” 

“You’re a sociopath,” Tim says. 

“You  _ wish _ I was a sociopath,” Bart says. 

“I don’t think he knows what that word means,” Conner says to Tim. 

“Blue,” Cassie says loudly, grabbing Jaime’s attention, and he slowly manages to tear his eyes away from where he’s holding Bart’s hands. “Does your bug have any ideas? I mean, their empire is intergalactic, they must know something about this, right?” 

“Yeah, it, uh, wants me to go in so it can see what my greatest fear is,” Jaime says awkwardly. “Which, like, I would rather not do.” 

“Why don’t we call the actual Justice League?” Conner says. “They should be able to fix this.”

Cassie gives him a hard look. “The Justice League’s leader is lying unconscious on his bedroom floor, do not tell me that they are any more capable than us.” 

“It wouldn’t hurt to let them know,” Conner tries, his voice weak. 

“You wanna tell Superman that Batman got his ass kicked by a god from another dimension, be my guest,” Cassie says.

“Okay, well, Blue got in and out without the whole hallucination thing, so there’s definitely a way to avoid that, we just need to figure out how,” Tim says. “I'm guessing that it has to do with the Scarab having limited control of your brain, it must have been able to fight it off.” 

“I mean, I guess that makes sense but it’s not like I can just extend that to you guys,” Jaime says. “Khaji Da would only be willing to protect Bart, and maybe Damian, at best, if it’s even possible.” 

“Oh my god, the bug likes me?” Bart asks giddily. 

“Well, I like you very, very much and it’s connected to my brain so, yeah,” Jaime replies. 

“The bug likes  _ Damian?”  _ Tim asks incredulously. Conner snorts and Tim shoots him a glare. “Don’t laugh!” 

“Hey, Damian and I are actually really close friends, you left the older brother spot wide fucking open,” Jaime says. 

Tim narrows his eyes. “You bitch, you know I’m insecure about that.” 

“Wait, why did we just skip over my helmet idea?” Bart says, raising his hand. 

“Because it was a dumb idea,” Conner says. 

“I still think we should just nuke it,” Damian chimes in. 

Tim sighs like it’s painful. “Your  _ father _ is still in there.” 

“Oh, yeah, that guy who didn’t know I existed for ten full years and then locked me in a cage,” Damian deadpans. “I do not care. Blow it up.” 

Bart laughs incredulously.

“What happened to ‘all we have to do is not be scared of him and he shouldn’t be hard to kill’?” Cassie grumbles. “All men do is lie.” 

“Preach, sister,” Jaime says flatly. 

“I never met him on Earth-23, I didn’t know what he was capable of,” Tim says defensively. 

“I can go in and get them.” 

They all stop bickering and look over to Suzie, who has been sitting quietly behind Tim. 

“I’m not going to put you in danger like that,” Cassie says firmly. “None of us are going in there until we figure out how to keep him from getting in our heads.” 

“I’m not corporeal,” Suzy says. “He can’t get into what’s not there.”

Cassie and Tim look at each other in mutual bewilderment. 

“Is that true?” Cassie asks. 

Tim turns around and gently cups Suzy’s face with his hands. “You feel pretty real to me.” 

Suzy blinks quickly and furrows her brow in concentration, and then Tim’s hands fall straight through her body. 

“Oh, shit,” Bart breathes out. “She really isn’t corporeal.” 

“Will it work?” Cassie asks Tim. 

“It might,” Tim says carefully. “The limitations of his powers are genuinely unknown to me.” 

“Well, that’s a first,” Conner says. 

Damian bumps his fist against Conner’s. “Bingo.” 

“I thought I made it clear that you two aren’t allowed to talk to each other,” Tim says. 

“Blue, you and Suzie will go in together to get Batman and Alfred out,” Cassie says, ignoring the boys. “If Metus gets to her, you come right back, no matter where you are, understand? And keep your comms on so Tim can tell you where to go.” 

Jaime gives her a thumbs up and is about to activate his helmet, but Bart’s hand quickly whips out to grab his arm. He raises an eyebrow at Cassie, who waves her hand and turns away. 

“Babe, I gotta go,” Jaime says quietly, crowding Bart against his seat so no one else can hear the conversation. “I’ll be back, I promise.” 

“Please don’t leave me,” Bart pleads, gripping Jaime’s hands as tight as he can. “You can’t leave me.” 

“I’m not leaving you,” Jaime assures him. “Look - just, watch Tim’s iPad, and you’ll know exactly where I am.”

“I c-” Bart’s voice cracks and he can’t meet Jaime’s eyes. “I don’t want you to -”

“Babe.” Jaime holds Bart’s face in his hands. “Baby, look at me. I  _ have _ to go.”

Bart just sort of holds onto him for a bit. “Please.”

“Blue,” Cassie says. “You going or not?” 

“Yeah, Cass, could I have a minute?” Jamie says. 

Cassie holds her hands up. “Take your time. We can always figure something else out.”

Jaime gives her a grateful look and she just nods. 

“Hey, listen, here,” Jaime says. He reaches back to take his necklace off and puts it on Bart. It’s simple, a silver chain with a small cross hanging off of it. He’s taken to not wearing much under the Blue Beetle suit, but the necklace is something that he thinks is always pretty helpful. “I’ll always be with you. Or something. I don’t know.” 

Bart frowns a little and fiddles with the cross. “I don’t believe in God.” 

“You believe in me, though, yeah?” Jaime says. “Just - just hold onto that. I’ll be right back.” 

Bart sighs loudly. “Alright.” 

“Okay.” Jaime leans down to press a kiss to the top of Bart’s head before letting him go. “I’ll be back.” 

“Oh my god,  _ go,”  _ Damian says loudly. 

“Do you  _ want _ me to shove a sock in your mouth? Is that what you want?” Tim says, whirling on Damian. 

“I’d love to see you try -”

Jaime holds his hand out and Suzie gingerly takes it, tucking herself under his arm.

“You ready?” he asks, realizing that this is the first time that he’s actually spoken to her. 

Suzie bites her lip in determination and nods. 

“Take a left at the top of the stairs, his room is at the end of the hall,” Tim says. Jaime grunts his acknowledgement and makes sure that Suzie is holding onto the armor on his back as he makes his way down the hall. Having a voice in his head isn’t really a new concept. “There’s a bug thing in there, so be careful. If it doesn’t see you, great, but if it does, it shouldn’t be hard to fight, it seems like severing the head takes them out well enough.”

“Oh, sure, just sever the head, that sounds easy,” Jaime mumbles. 

As it turns out, it isn’t really that hard either. All it takes is a quick sweep with the sword thing that Khaji Da gives him and it’s over. He goes over to Batman and makes sure his vitals are stable while Suzie locks the door and wanders to look around the room. 

“Okay, what do you want me to do with him?” Jaime asks.

“Can you pick him up?” Tim says. 

“I’ll - I don’t know,” Jaime says, and he pauses for a minute to wait for a response. 

_ “You can if you need to, but it will not be easy.” _

“Yeah, okay.” Jaime hauls Batman up and holds him to his side. “There’s no way I can get both him and Suzie out of here at the same time.” 

“You can go,” Suzie says. “I’ll find the butler.” 

“I’m not leaving you,” Jaime says. He holds a hand to his earpiece. “Can one of you come get him from the window?”

“Oh, I’m on it,” Cassie buzzes in. “I’ll be there in two seconds, you need me to get it open?” 

“Yeah, that’d be great.” 

Jaime drags Batman to the window and Suzie comes to stand behind him. 

The window shatters and Cassie reaches through to clear the frame of sharp glass. 

“Hey,” she says. “I got him. Tim is gonna try to find Alfred and guide you to him, but it would be great if you could try to take out as many of those bugs as possible.” 

Jaime hands Batman over to her and she dips a little from the extra weight. “What about the, uh. The guy? Like, what if he comes for us or something?”

“We’ll come back you up if that happens,” Cassie says. “Jesus, he weighs as much as a horse.” 

“You’ve carried horses before?” Jaime asks. 

“Oh, yeah, you know, classic ‘horse stuck in a tree’ scenarios, I get them everyday,” Cassie says casually. “Good luck, and hey. If you get a bad feeling at any point, just get out of there. We’re not going to lose you.” 

“I got it,” Jaime assures her. “Suzie and I are doing great.” 

Cassie nods. “Alright. See you soon.” 

She drops from sight and Jaime turns back to see Suzie staring at the paintings on the wall. She looks tiny and almost translucent, like she’s being projected into the room on a moonbeam. 

“That’s Tim,” she says. 

Jaime follows her gaze to the family portrait that Bruce had done last year at Christmas. “Yeah, he lives here. Batman is his dad.” 

Suzie blinks slowly and looks to the next painting. It’s darker, more somber, with only Bruce and the second Robin, probably done years ago. Bruce is sitting and Robin is standing just barely behind him with a wide grin on his face. 

“Who is that?” she asks. 

“Uh, that’s Robin,” Jaime says. She looks at him with narrowed eyes and he huffs out an awkward laugh. “Yeah, no, there have been a few. Tim was Robin before Damian, and this guy was before Tim.”

“He left,” Suzie says.

“Sort of,” Jaime says. “It’s complicated.” 

Suzie shakes her head. “He was in New York.” 

“Um.” Jaime hasn’t been a superhero for that long, but he’s well aware that Jason, the second Robin, had died in Ethiopia five years ago. “What?”

“Blue, what’s going on? You good?” Tim asks. 

Jaime coughs. “Yeah, we’re just - admiring the home decor. Did you find Alfred?” 

“Not yet. Hey, you guys can stay put there until I find him, just to be safe.” 

“Yeah, okay, thanks.” Jaime mutes his end of the comm again and takes a small step closer to Suzie. “Did you see him in New York?” 

“When I escaped the DEO,” Suzie says. “He took me to the bus station.”

“How…” Jaime looks from Suzie to the painting and then back to Suzie. “You’re sure it was him? This painting is from seven years ago.”

“Jason,” Suzie whispers. 

Before Jaime can respond, the door bursts in and a bunch of the bug things charge toward them. 

“Shit,” he mumbles, pushing Suzie behind him. “Alright, Khaji, let’s go.” 

Fighting the bugs isn’t exactly strenuous or hard, but it is tedious, like running on a high school track for three hours straight. Suzie proves to be pretty handy herself once she gets hold of a fire poker. She’s not quite strong enough to decapitate the monsters but she does a good job holding them off until Jaime can. He supposes that he shouldn’t be surprised. Of course a girl who grew up on the streets of Chicago would know how to fight.

After what feels like hours, Jaime reaches up to turn his earpiece on. “Jesus, shit, Red, how many of these things are there?”

“Oh, I have no idea,” Tim replies. “Alfred’s in the kitchen. You’re in the master right now, so there are two ways that you can get there - you can go back through the entrance hall, past the dining room, and it’s right there on the left of the stairs, across from the laundry room, or you can go down to the library, the door by the ladder leads to the family room, and the kitchen is connected.” 

Jaime peers over the railing down the staircase. “Dude, your house is way too fucking big.”

“Yeah, wait till you see our summer estate,” Tim says. 

“You have a  _ summer estate?” _

Tim laughs a little and Jaime grabs Suzie’s hand to lead her down the stairs. It’s eerily easy to get to the kitchen, in a way that makes Jaime anxious. They don’t see or hear from Metus and only have to take out a few monsters, which is odd because he wouldn’t just  _ leave. _

“Okay, I got him,” Jaime says, hauling the butler over his shoulder. Should we just go back out the way we came?”

“Yeah, um, be careful,” Tim says. “I’ve lost visual on Metus.”

Jaime stiffens and he instinctively looks over his shoulder, like something will be there. “Dude! How did you - what if we die?” 

“First of all, I wouldn’t let that happen,” Tim scoffs. “And second, it’s not like he was going to let me know before he just disappeared.”

“I don’t want a fear demon fucking with my brain,” Jaime hisses. 

_ “I wouldn’t let that happen.” _

“Not the point, Khaj!”

Jaime holds his hand out and Suzie immediately grabs it. They trek purposefully back to the room under the master bedroom that connects to the Batcave. Jaime tries not to think about how he can hear his footsteps echoing through the empty house. 

“You don’t have to listen to me,” Jaime says, “but I think you guys could benefit from some hardwood floors.” 

“Fucking tell me about it,” Tim sighs. “Bruce literally  _ won’t _ let us renovate anything. My shower has been backed up for years.” 

“Maybe you could fix that yourself and not blame it on your dad,” Jaime says. 

“No thanks,” Tim says. “I can, and will, always blame everything on my dad.” 

Jaime laughs a little and lets go of Suzie’s hand to open the door that leads to the cave. He steps through and is turning to grab for Suzie again when the door slams shut. He almost drops Alfred as his fist hits the door and he struggles with the doorknob. 

“Red,” he says, his voice cracking. “I lost Suzie.” 

“I’m sorry?” Tim says, all humor gone from his voice. “What happened?” 

“I don’t know, the door just closed on her,” Jaime says. “I don’t -”

“Don’t move, we’re on our way in,” Tim says.  _ “Don’t move.” _

“Okay,” Jaime says. “I’m not moving.” 

He hears Tim click off and he sets Alfred down against the wall so he can try to open the door again. 

“Suzie!” he yells. “Suzie, can you hear me?” 

Cassie is suddenly by his side, lifting Alfred up to hand him to Conner, who runs back to the boat. 

“He’s got to be fucking with us,” Cassie says, juggling the doorknob. “Stand back.” 

Jaime takes a step back and Cassie kicks the door in, splintering the frame. Suzie isn’t there. 

“Jesus, shit,” Jaime murmurs, bringing his hands to his head. “She was  _ right there, _ I should have been more careful.” 

“It’s not your fault, Blue,” Cassie tells him. “But we have to find her, now.” 

Tim whizzes by them with Damian on his heels. “Entrance hall!” 

“God, could you for once just let me know what you’re doing before you do it?” Cassie snaps. “Just once.” 

Cassie takes off and Jaime follows close behind.

“Please give her back?” Tim is saying when Jaime and Cassie catch up to him. He’s standing in the doorway between the entrance hall and the foyer, facing Metus, who is holding Suzie by the back of her shirt. Suzie looks like she’s saying something but there aren’t any sounds coming out of her mouth. “Please?” 

“Why,” Metus says, his voice so deep that it almost doesn’t seem real, “would I do anything for you?” 

“Because I asked nicely?” Tim guesses. 

“It’s like literally every time you speak, I am overcome with the urge to suplex you into the goddamn concrete,” Damian says. 

“Oh my god, can you be quiet for two seconds?” Tim says. 

“Can you not be a fuck up for two seconds?” Damian shoots back. 

“Shut the hell up,” Cassie says, pushing Tim behind her. “Give her back.” 

“Little girl, my quarrel is not with you,” Metus says, almost like he’s amused. 

Cassie frowns. “Actually, it is, because you have my girl. So, you know, hand her over or tell us what we need to do to get her back.” 

“I’m here for him,” Metus says, and they all know he’s talking about Tim. “Give him to me and I will let her go.” 

Tim lowers his staff and steps forward but both Jaime and Damian reach out to stop him. 

“What’s your beef with him?” Cassie asks. 

“Did you just ask a literal god what his ‘beef’ with Tim is?” Jaime says flatly. 

“I am having a conversation right now!” Cassie hisses over her shoulder. 

Metus stares at them blankly like he’s disappointed in what he’s found, and Jaime honestly can’t blame him. They’re superheroes, sure, and they get a lot done, but they’re still just a bunch of teenagers left with very limited supervision. Teenagers, as a rule, are just silly. They only  _ barely _ take things seriously. 

“He ruined everything for me,” Metus says, trying to keep the conversation on track. “And now I will ruin everything for him.” 

Tim snorts. “Joke’s on you, asshole, everything has  _ already  _ been ruined for me.”

Metus stares at them some more. He genuinely seems like he doesn’t know what to say. 

“So, you know, yeah, everything sucks, could I get my friend back?” Cassie says eventually. 

“You know,” Metus says, “what the deal is.” 

_ “I don’t think he plans on giving Suzie back to you, regardless of whether or not we give him the Robin,”  _ Khaji Da says. 

Jaime frowns. “What? Why? How do you know?” he whispers back. 

_ “I can tell he is lying because of his irregular heart rate.”  _

“You can hear his heartbeat?” 

_ “He has a very wide presence.” _

“Wh -  _ wide presence?  _ What the fuck does that mean?” 

_ “Do you want me to give you a lesson on the intricacies of celestial existences?”  _

“Obviously I don’t.” 

A loud knock on the door interrupts all the conversations going on and they all look at the door in bewildered silence. 

Metus looks like he’s going to say something but he gets cut off by the doorbell, which is a series of chimes.

“Okay, I gotta answer that or it’s just gonna keep bothering me,” Tim says. 

“Don’t move,” Metus says before Tim can do anything.

“Are you serious? This is my goddamn house, I should be able to open a door,” Tim snaps. “Look, why don’t  _ you _ do it, if you’re not going to let me?” 

The doorbell rings again. 

“They’re not going to leave,” Cassie says. “I mean, you could really just tell them to leave so they don’t have to stand there, waiting for this to be over.” 

“Do you not realize the danger you are in?” Metus says. 

“Oh, please, my mother is an Asian immigrant, I’m literally always in danger,” Cassie scoffs. “You think a plague doctor mask and a little hallucination is gonna scare me? Open the door or I will.” 

Metus very slowly backs up to unlock the door and they all wait apprehensively for their visitor’s next move. 

The door swings open and they hear his voice before they see him. 

“Well, gee, I know it’s been a while but I thought you’d at least be a little excited to see me -” The man is tall, taller than everyone else in the room, and he’s wearing a red helmet that covers his face. He stops in the doorway and looks around, ending up facing Metus and Suzie. “Oh, hey, Greta.” 

“Greta?” Damian whispers to Jaime. 

Suzie starts making wild gestures with her hands, like she’s communicating with him somehow, and he doesn’t hesitate to pull a gun out of the waistband of his pants and shoot Metus straight in the forehead. 

Metus collapses and Suzie runs into Tim’s open arms. 

“Oh my god!” Cassie yells. “What the hell?” 

The man in the red mask turns to look at the kids, taking a second to scrutinize each of them. “Who the fuck are you?”

“Who the fuck are  _ you?”  _ Damian shoots back. 

“What the fuck is going on?” the man asks. “Why are there  _ two  _ Robins?”

“Okay, well, first of all, he’s not Robin anymore,” Damian says. “And second,  _ who the fuck are you?”  _

“If you cuss one more time, I am going to put you on probation,” Jaime says.

The man huffs. “Oh my god. They replaced me.” 

“What?” Cassie asks. “I’m so sorry, can we go back to introductions? I feel like I’m missing someone.” 

Tim frowns and hands Suzie off to Cassie, taking a tentative step closer to the man. “Jason?” 

The room goes dead quiet. 

“Jason,” Tim says, more confidently this time. “What happened to you?” 

The man tucks his gun back into his pants and backs out the door. “No, no, I can see that I’m not needed here. Give Bruce my best.” 

“Wait, Jason, don’t go,” Tim says. “Please -”

The door slams closed and they can hear a motorcycle rev up and speed away, leaving them, once again, alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have you ever tried to do anything with a group of 16-17 year olds?? it’s impossible. Impossible. stay tuned for more.

**Author's Note:**

> visit me on tumblr @tyviet or on twitter @kkongie_97 !


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